"We will start to have some diminishing returns": McLaren's Andrea Stella feels the growth curve is going to flatten in the 2024 F1 season

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella feels that their growth curve could flatten through the 2024 season. Speaking to media, including Sportskeeda, at the MCL38 virtual launch, the Italian said that a lot of their innovations for the car are in the pipeline.

Unlike most teams, McLaren opted for a low-key virtual launch for their 2024 F1 car, where only a few studio images were released. The images did not give away too many cues about the changes or innovations in their car. Stella explained that some of the innovations due for the launch spec version will be introduced on the car later.

He added that the car had been designed in a way that it had scope for various innovations and improvements. The McLaren team principal felt that they would have to keep up the development rate of the previous season to be able to perform consistently throughout the 2024 season.

Explaining delays on timelines and the scope for progress on their new car, the 52-year-old said:

“In terms of the innovations, its not that the innovations didn’t make it. I think it’s some development projects that didn’t make it. But when you embark in some development project, its not like you want to, obviously you want to target them to deliver as soon as possible, lets just say."

"But there’s a whole room in the way we have designed this car for this project to land later on onto the car. There are no restrictions from our layout point of view, for one of them to become available. So its just a matter of the time required for projects to mature and then be ready to be delivered.”

He continued:

“Concerning the development of the cars, this year we will see that adding lap time will start to have some diminishing returns I would say. For the first time with this new regulations, for two years we have seen progress of specially aerodynamic development being quite steep."

"But now I would always anticipate that towards the end of the season, it could become harder for designers to be able to keep a very steep development rate. This is why I said before, we can be competitive if we are able to keep the development rate that we have experienced over the last 12 months," Stella added.

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McLaren team principal explains key areas that improved on their new car

Andrea Stella mentioned three key areas to focus on for the development of their new car — aerodynamic efficiency, mechanical grip, and tyre performance. He said that some of the projects to improvise their package were not yet finalized for the launch spec car and will be updated as the season progresses.

Speaking to media, including Sportskeeda, at the virtual launch of the McLaren MCL38, Stella explained the delays, saying:

“These areas rather than being specific, I would keep it relatively general. But they effectively have to do with improving the aerodynamic performance, improving the mechanical side and improving the interaction with tyres."

"So in all the three disciplines its clear that few projects that we had started, so that they had potential. But we couldn’t finalise them in time to have it on the launch car but they will very likely become updates for the early part of the season.”

Prior to the virtual launch, McLaren carried out filming activities and some shakedown laps on their new car earlier in the day. Given the wet weather during the shakedown, the drivers were unable to get the required data to understand the car. After a mid-season turnaround in performance, the Woking team are optimistic to continue the development of their car at the same rate to achieve the maximum results in the upcoming season.