Red Bull dominated last year, and all its rivals had hoped that a winter of development would allow them to close in on the world champion squad to make a better fight this campaign.
However, a major overhaul of the Red Bull concept allowed Max Verstappen to dominate last weekend’s season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix and has revived the prospect of Red Bull doing what it did not manage last year: winning every race.
For McLaren the situation is far from ideal, considering it had hoped that the work it had done on its new MCL38 would help it build on the strong form that it enjoyed at the end of 2023.
However, team principal Andrea Stella has said he is far from downbeat about the situation and thinks that the situation is quite easily explained.
“Certainly not depressing, definitely inspiring,” he said, summing up his feelings on the way that Red Bull has moved the bar over the winter.
“Not depressing, because I am actually very encouraged and very happy with the developments that our aerodynamic group and our design group have been able to sustain over the last 12 months.
“The rate of development is ultimately what counts. It is not the creativity of the design. It is the performance that you actually deliver with the car.
“I think we can be reasonably happy that the performance improvements over the winter have been substantial.”
Source: Autosport