Andrea Stella: We understand what we need to focus on.

      Andrea Stella, head of the McLaren team, summed up the preliminary results of the pre-season tests on Sky TV, noting that Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri equally evaluate the behavior of the MCL39 car, and this is very important for engineers.

      Andrea Stella: "So far, the work on the tests is proceeding according to plans. There are no serious problems with the car, so most of our riders spend time on the track. A number of the tasks we were solving were related to refining the aerodynamic characteristics of the car, rather than speed, so we asked Lando and Oscar to be patient and work for the team, which they did, and very diligently.

      But when we were working on the speed, the car behaved as we expected, and this is not always self-evident. During the winter off-season, we made some adjustments to the layout of the car, so, of course, before the tests we had certain questions that needed to be answered.

      But everything is working as it should, and the efforts of our engineers deserve the highest praise. We need to understand that improving an already quite competitive car involves a certain risk, and we had to make difficult decisions, but we believed in the high qualifications of our technical specialists, and it looks like they did a very good job."

      Lando Norris said after the first two days of testing that the behavior of the rear of the MCL39 was not stable enough, and we have already quoted Stella's comment on this. Now he has returned to this topic and added: "If we talk about the pace on long series of laps that we showed yesterday, then we need to be very careful in our estimates. The weather conditions in Bahrain are not very suitable for our car, and we know this.

      As for balance, we would really like to achieve an increased level of grip on the rear wheels, but for a track like Bahrain, this is quite normal, because it requires good braking stability and good acceleration at the exit of corners.

      Today, on the third day of testing, it has already become warmer, and the conditions are more similar to typical Bahraini weather, including the wind blowing noticeably stronger. Therefore, it is much more difficult to drive, and all those impressions about the balance of the car that Lando and Oscar shared before have only intensified. But this is normal for Bahrain.

      At the same time, both drivers give exactly the same comments about the work of the MCL39, and this is very good from the point of view of our engineering department, because we understand what tasks we need to focus on first in order to improve the efficiency of the car."