Stella agrees with Norris, who criticizes the MCL39

      During the two days of testing in Bahrain, the McLaren drivers drove 239 laps in the MCL39, the team's new car, with Lando Norris showing the best time on Wednesday, but yesterday both focused on working on long series of laps, so they ended up on the 13th and 14th lines in Thursday's minutes.

      Last year, the team won the Constructors' Cup, and, of course, they are among the favorites at the beginning of the season, but Norris, noting progress in certain areas, also complained that the rear of the car still lacks stability.

      "Not much has changed in the car, we were just trying to make it generally faster and more aerodynamically efficient," Lando told the press. – At the same time, we are still trying to pay more attention to certain areas. Due to the behavior of the rear of the car in the first two days of testing, we have more difficulties than we would like, but so far the work is just beginning."

      Andrea Stella, McLaren team principal, acknowledged the validity of these remarks, but explained that the behavior of the MCL39 could have been affected by the uncharacteristically cold weather in Bahrain and the peculiarities of the circuit in Sahir.

      Moreover, McLaren has had difficulties in Bahrain in previous years.

      "For example, if you look at the configuration of the track, at a number of issues related to the low level of grip, as well as the high degree of abrasiveness of the asphalt surface and the need to achieve good acceleration at the exit from the corners, it becomes clear why our car is not working well here," the Australian edition of Speedcafe quotes Stella. – Over the past two years, we have tried to ensure that the car meets to a greater extent the requirements typical of this type of track, where there are sharp turns.

      I think we've made some progress, while trying to maintain the strengths of the car, in particular, its effectiveness in medium-speed turns.  

      Lando's comments about the unstable behavior of the rear of the car are true. But at the same time, I would be very surprised if here in Bahrain there were no difficulties associated with the rear of the car and the lack of traction of the drive wheels during acceleration at the exit of turns. To a certain extent, such difficulties are typical for this route."

      Although from Norris' point of view, the unstable behavior of the rear of the car is its main disadvantage, Stella stressed that the team pays attention to other aspects during the tests.

      "We not only want to improve the grip of the rear wheels when entering and exiting corners," he added. – We also want to improve the behavior of the car in the middle phase of the turn due to more efficient operation of its front end. In the previous two years, we have tried to improve in these three aspects and are continuing this work ahead of the next season.

      I would like to fully understand such difficulties, but in reality it's just a kind of game, the essence of which is that all teams try to mitigate their manifestation, although these features are typical of the behavior of a Formula 1 car, especially on tracks with a similar configuration."