McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has said the constructors' champions have taken steps to address its poor performance at the Las Vegas Grand Prix last season.
The F1 paddock is back in Nevada this weekend, the scene of McLaren's "most difficult" round last term.
The Woking-based squad ultimately clinched the constructors' title at the campaign-ending weekend in Abu Dhabi, but Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri only being able to achieve sixth and seventh place, respectively, in Sin City 12 months ago left the team in a precarious position.
Whilst that championship has already been sewn up this year, the drivers' crown remains unclaimed, meaning the McLaren team-mates will both want strong results.
Norris leads the standings by 24 points over the Australian, but Max Verstappen is still a looming — albeit diminished — threat, a further 25 points back.
Reflecting on the struggle McLaren endured in the desert city last year, Stella explained the cause of the team's lack of pace.
"Vegas last year was one of the most difficult races," the Italian told media, including RacingNews365.
"We had difficulties with the behaviour of the tyres; the behaviour of the tyres in qualifying, because we were not fast, and the behaviour of the tyres in the race, because we had a lot of graining.
"We also had some aerodynamic issues. When we tried to offload the rear wing, we saw that we were losing too much efficiency, and we also had a bit of issues with the setup of the car, in a way, trying to compensate for the graining and some of the understeer."
"So the review from Vegas last year gave us a lot of information to try and find a way to improve.
"I would say that from a tyre point of view, from an aerodynamic efficiency point of view, and from a car set-up point of view, we know in which direction we should change compared to last year.
"Will it be enough to be competitive now? We will only see it in Vegas, but definitely we took actions in response to what we saw last year, because certainly the performance wasn't satisfactory enough."
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Making changes
Stella shared that McLaren's review of the round last season provided a lot of information and answers, but was sure to stress that it does not necessarily guarantee a transformation in fortunes with the MCL39.
"So the review from Vegas last year gave us a lot of information to try and find a way to improve," the 54-year-old stated.
"I would say that from a tyre point of view, from an aerodynamic efficiency point of view, and from a car set-up point of view, we know in which direction we should change compared to last year.
"Will it be enough to be competitive now? We will only see it in Vegas, but definitely we took actions in response to what we saw last year, because certainly the performance wasn't satisfactory enough."
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