How McLaren helped a former junior driver from getting stranded in Faenza/Imola

AlphaTauri driver Nyck de Vries revealed that he got stuck in Faenza during the recent floods but was helped by a McLaren employee.

The Emilia Romagna region in Italy has recently seen heavy downpours and flooding which has even caused the Grand Prix, which was supposed to be held this weekend, to be canceled. Many F1 personnel, including de Vries, had already reached the region in preparation for the race.

Taking to his Instagram, the Dutch driver recalled the whole incident:

"Tuesday evening at 11:30 pm, on my way to Faenza ahead of a marketing day at the SAT factory on Wednesday. It’s raining intensely, Faenza is already flooded and I am unable to get to my hotel. Returning to the highway is no option either."

"Stuck in a little village with one fully booked hotel. Fortunately, McLaren got stranded there earlier and their front jack Frazer was kind enough to give me his room. The following morning, the hotel lobby turned into an emergency shelter for people who were forced to escape their homes during the night."

He continued:

"Post F1 announcement, I only saw one potential option to get home, which was driving via Firenze. After an adventurous drive through the mountains, thanks to help from local people and authorities in different villages, I finally got home safely."

"Thank you to every single person who has been kind enough to help me. It was truly heartwarming to see so many look out for each other. My thoughts are with those who continue to be affected by this tragedy. I’ll be back soon in Faenza to meet my team and the people from the region! Forza."

"I think this generation of cars is overall better correlated, at least at McLaren" - Andrea Stella

McLaren F1 Team Principal Andrea Stella mentioned that the current generation of cars is better at correlation than the previous generation which ended in 2021. Stella said, as per Motorsport.com:

"I think this generation of cars is overall better correlated, at least at McLaren. Having the limitations of the wind tunnel with the previous generation of cars was very restrictive, not only for the logistics but for the aerodynamic correlation genuinely."

"In the previous generation, there were many vortices that were flying in free air and generated from the side, from the barge boards for instance. So that area was always a little more tricky for the front wing."

Stella continued:

"But this [2023] front wing works farther away from the ground. It's simpler. Even the floor for some reason correlates better. So overall, I think it's more to do with the generation of cars."

Despite better correlation, McLaren have made a slow start in these new cars and will hope to be as competitive as they were in 2021.