McLaren signal ‘huge’ milestone after ending 10-year F1 drought

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has hailed his squad's “huge” progress after taking over the lead of the F1 constructors' championship.

Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris' runs to first and fourth respectively in Azerbaijan saw the Woking-based outfit move ahead of Red Bull in the standings.

McLaren has been closing in on the reigning champions for some time as it seeks to obtain its first F1 title in 16 years - its progression to the lead of the championship after Baku marks the first time since early 2014 that it has held the leading position in the standings.

Having commenced last year's F1 season towards the back of the field, Stella praised the hard work undertaken to turn around its form.

"As a milestone, it's definitely huge," Stella said. "Because we don't have to forget that we were last when we started last season, and now we lead the classification.

"That has been possible thanks to the hard work, and the quality of the work of the entire team, the support from our shareholders, our partners, the fans - you achieve this because you achieve it together.”

However, the Italian asserted the squad is not getting carried away with its position in the pecking order.

“At the same time, this second is already over,” Stella added. 

“We don’t look at the classification. We just focus on executing at every single event, delivering the upgrades we still plan to take to the future races.

McLaren keeping 'feet on the ground'

Piastri narrowly held on for victory in Baku as he fended off a challenge from Charles Leclerc for well over 20 laps.

Stella highlighted the team is not resting on its laurels as it looks to put distance between itself and its rivals in the pecking order.

“Because the car is still not fast enough to create some boring races, which is not in the interests of F1 but is definitely the way we want to go racing,” he said.

“So we have work to do to make the car faster. We need to remain humble and keep our feet on the ground because there is not much to choose between the top teams.

“And when it comes to McLaren, I often hear ‘McLaren is the best car’. I think this is not in the numbers - in the numbers, McLaren is the best car in some kind of circuits like Barcelona, Hungary Zandvoort, for good technical reasons.

“But here [in Azerbaijan], McLaren did not enjoy any advantage over Ferrari, and I think not even over Red Bull.”