McLaren team principal Andrea Stella says that they will have more upgrades to come after the summer break, insisting that there is no question of easing off or focusing on next year's car.
Ever since McLaren brought in a formidable package of upgrades for the Miami GP in May, the team has outscored Red Bull in every round and closed the gap int he constructors standings to just 42 points with 10 rounds to go.
Red Bull has responded and brought a new package of upgrades to Hungary - only to see McLaren pull off a 1-2 victory in the race.
Red Bull was still struggling to match their rivals at McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari in the most recent race in Belgium, with Max Verstappen only fourth and Sergio Perez just seventh at Spa.
"If you had told me before the race, are you going to gain points of Red Bull, I’m wouldn't have been so sure," Stella admitted. "I was expecting Verstappen to come through. In last year’s race, Perez finished something like 10-15s from Verstappen for a 1-2."
It's all a far cry from where Red Bull were expecting to be at this point in the season given their dominance in 2023, and McLaren see an opportunity to challenge for the title after the summer.
"I’m surprised that we’ve been so competitive, considering that from Miami onwards we haven’t actually brought trackside many new parts," said Stella.
"Obviously the Miami upgrade was big, but there’s some upgrades that will come in the second part of the season," he continued. “I would expect that for the second part of the season we will have, at multiple times, some new parts.
"Red Bull have taken trackside more developments so far, in terms of physical parts delivered than we have," he added. "But we're now in a position to cash in some of these developments that we have accrued on the ground."
The team has not been problem-free in its recent run of ten consecutive podium races with controversial strategy calls, poor starts for Lando Norris and overruns during pit stops, but that didn't worry Stella.
"The reality is that nobody has a perfect event, it’s just impossible," he said. “I think we are actually quite satisfied with the level of consistency and robustness we have as a team. I take the positives and we keep working on the opportunities.”
“[We are] the only team where the drivers have scored points at every single event. Mega reliability so far, I’ve lost the counting of how many points in a row," he added. "Many opportunities to do better, but the big picture is of a very strong and consistent team."
That said, Stella wanted to play down talk that the MCL38 was the quiekest car on the grid and ahead of the famed RB20 in terms of performance right now. "I keep getting comments that McLaren is the best car," he acknowledged.
"I always keep putting some water on the fire," he said. "There are four cars that are pretty much at the same level. There's a bit of variability, which is a function of the track, a function even of the conditions to some extent.
"It looks like everything is so close together that some small factors, and variable circumstances, can modify the pecking order."
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