The British team endured a difficult weekend at Silverstone, where the MCL40 lacked the pace to challenge at the front.
Lando Norris finished fourth in the Grand Prix after benefiting from Max Verstappen’s retirement and Kimi Antonelli’s late technical problem, while Oscar Piastri crossed the line in 11th after first-lap contact with Liam Lawson forced an early front-wing change.
Norris also claimed an encouraging third place in the Sprint, but Piastri could only finish seventh.
Stella admitted McLaren’s current lack of performance was mainly down to falling behind its rivals in the development race.
“I think the fact that we are out of sync with upgrades is probably the biggest single factor,” Stella said.
He explained that recent upgrades introduced by rival teams had been worth around three tenths of a second per lap, although he felt McLaren still had a gap of around half a second to Ferrari and Mercedes.
McLaren last introduced a major upgrade package at the Miami Grand Prix. Since then, the team has encountered setbacks with several new components. A revised front wing was briefly withdrawn after its debut in Canada before returning in Spain, while a new rear wing tested in Austria was not raced after concerns over its performance. Fresh upgrades are now planned for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Stella also highlighted Silverstone’s difficult conditions as another reason for the team’s struggles.
“The grip is very low, the conditions are difficult, the car slides and is quite unpredictable with the wind,” he said. “Cars with more grip and more downforce are easier to drive in these conditions.”
McLaren is also yet to introduce the latest Mercedes power unit specification already being used by fellow customer teams Alpine and Williams. The upgrade is expected before the summer break, and Stella believes there is still more performance to unlock.
“There are possibly some opportunities by exploiting more out of the power unit that we have available,” he said. “It is not only the deployment, but it has to do with some other factors, including the specification.”
