Stella: I hope that in the fall we can aim for victories.

      Andrea Stella, the team principal of McLaren, summarized the Belgian weekend, which could have been better if not for various circumstances...

      Question: Today your drivers finished in 5th and 7th places. Do you think these results fully reflect the pace of the McLaren car this weekend?

      Andrea Stella: In fact, I think we were more competitive at this track. Lando Norris set the 3rd fastest time in qualifying, but we received a penalty for replacing one of the power unit components. I believe if he had started from 3rd position, he could have been a contender for the podium. We saw that during the race he showed a truly confident pace.

      In reality, he started 13th and already gained several positions at the start. But first, the virtual safety car was deployed at an unfortunate moment for us, and then due to a technical issue, Lando lost time during the pit stop, after which he couldn't climb higher than 7th place.

      But our car definitely allowed us to fight for the podium, and that is encouraging. As for Oscar, he was hindered by excessive tire degradation, and we need to find ways to reduce it so that tire wear is somewhat less.

      Question: Perhaps this is related to the damage sustained by the floor of his McLaren? We heard Oscar on the radio talking about the consequences of the contact with Charles Leclerc's Ferrari...

      Andrea Stella: Absolutely. Due to the broken deflector, there was a partial loss of downforce. And if you are trying to increase the pace by putting more load on the tires, their degradation can indeed worsen. I think in Oscar's case, this is what we observed in both segments of the race. We saw that he had to use the tire resource more actively, and towards the end of the segment, he had to pay for that.

      Still, we saw a number of positive changes compared to what we had in Silverstone. We hope that the second half of the season will go better after we introduce a number of technical innovations in Hungary.

      Question: After the races at the circuits in Silverstone and Spa with their very high speeds, there is a race weekend ahead at the Hungaroring, which has a completely different character. What results do you think your drivers will be able to show in Hungary?

      Andrea Stella: I think in Hungary and the Netherlands we will see that Ferrari cars will handle the corners better than anyone else. As for McLaren, we know we need to work hard to improve our cornering grip.

      This is precisely what some of the innovations we plan to introduce in Hungary are aimed at, but this work needs to continue in the future. The challenges we face are quite clear, and although not all of them will be solved in the upcoming races of the season, I still hope that in the fall we can contend for victories.