The second race of this 2024 season has just ended, with a McLaren driving a mediocre race. Thanks to the Safety Car, the wrong strategies and a car that still has problems to improve. However, they managed to place fourth and eighth place.
McLaren had a significantly better start to the 2024 season than the previous one. Even though there is still a lot to improve, in these first two stages of 2024 they have already managed to finish two races returning to the points zone. During qualifying in this second stage of the 2024 season, McLaren managed to place in fifth and sixth position. Thus occupying the third row. The MCL38 therefore demonstrates that it has made steps forward compared to last weekend. However, some problems made the race difficult for both drivers.
A McLaren with still many uncertainties
After qualifying went reasonably well, it was important to be able to complete a race more or less in the best possible way. But as we know, you can’t win alone. The union between the driver and the team are what makes the difference. But when this is missing, we find ourselves in difficulty. “I’ll dream of the rear of Hamilton’s Mercedes” – here’s what Oscar Piastri said after the race. In fact, he lived a nightmare for almost the entire race, finding himself in front of a Lewis Hamilton who defended his position tooth and nail until the end. Leaving no space for Oscar.
McLaren has the same problem as last year. On the straight, even with the DRS open they struggle to keep up, very slow. And this can be seen from how Oscar never managed to overtake Lewis Hamilton. He only managed to overtake him because Lewis Hamilton had to come back to make a stop. But if this hadn’t happened, he probably would have found himself behind Hamilton for the entire race. Yet when Oscar had clean air in front of him, he managed to lap with a great pace, perhaps the same as Charles Leclerc. This highlights the problem of MCL38. That is, having to chase your opponent without ever being able to overtake.
His teammate, Lando Norris was the victim of a team error which cost him some positions. In fact, yesterday the strategy was also wrong. Not stopping during the Safety Car was not the right choice, because his rivals then had no tire degradation at all, managing to do 40 laps on the hards.
MCL38, a project that needs to be improved
All in all the McLaren is not a bad car. But as mentioned before, the team and the riders go hand in hand. If mistakes are made, whether strategic or otherwise, it can cost you something. Despite these various problems, both managed to obtain a fourth and eighth place. Other points that are collected but which are still not enough. However, we are only at the beginning of the season.
After the fourth place achieved, Piastri felt quite satisfied: “I believe we extracted the maximum potential from this race and executed our plan effectively. It was a bit frustrating to be stuck behind Lewis Hamilton for a long time, but considering the circumstances, I think we got as many points as possible this weekend. I’m excited to compete in Melbourne, my home race, and can’t wait to race in front of the Australian fans at my hometown circuit.”
Andrea Stella commented on the choice not to return Lando back during the Safety Car: “We decided to adopt different strategies for Lando during the Safety Car, hoping for a favorable situation in the event of another Safety Car or a red flag, which is not uncommon in Saudi Arabia. It was a calculated risk that paid off”
There are currently three neighboring teams, McLaren, Mercedes and Aston Martin. It is still early to establish which of these three teams will prevail. We have to wait for some updates that will bring both them but also all the other teams. Because we know, both McLaren and the rest of the grid could improve. And it’s here to see how they will react, and who will prevail. Currently, we just have to wait, the MCL38 project is certainly not that bad, but there is still a lot to improve.
