Not for the first time, following a poor start to the season, McLaren is targeting a major upgrade that team boss, Andrea Stella, describes as "kind of a B-car".

After just two races the Woking outfit lies last in the standings, courtesy of a car that the team was clearly unsure of even as early as the launch.

In its determination to move back up the grid the team is planning an upgrade for Azerbaijan late next month followed by a far more significant upgrade that Stella likens to a "kind of B-car".

"In terms of development (Azerbaijan) is just the first step," he told reporters as the Melbourne weekend got underway. "We would expect definitely another major upgrade, which will interest more areas of the car and be much more apparent. That is what somebody may call like kind of a B-spec car.

"We then expect to have a further round of upgrades in the second part of the season after the shutdown," he added.

"So we have three main steps, Baku, later on," the Italian stressing that, "I don't want to commit to any date but before shutdown, and then after shutdown.

"We hope that each of them will be able to provide a few tenths of a second so that we put ourselves in a more realistic position to meet our ambition to become a top four car towards the end of the season."

This isn't the first case of a team having to return to the drawing board, for while Mercedes is also planning something equally drastic, as recently as 2004 McLaren, on 17 points and in danger of losing sixth in the standings to Sauber, introduced the MP4-19B, which in reality was a bigger progression, compared to the MP4-19, than the name suggests. Progress was made and over the next couple of races the team more than doubled its points tally.

Last week the Woking outfit announced that it had fired technical director James Key and hired Ferrari man David Sanchez, though he cannot start work until next January. At the same time the team announced a major reorganisation of its technical management.

"The model affects this delivery of performance because it will accelerate the development rate," said Stella of the reorganisation which sees aero guru Peter Prodromou, moves into the role of technical director, aerodynamics, Neil Houldey promoted to the newly created role of technical director, engineering and design and Giuseppe Pesce promoted to director, aerodynamics & chief of staff.

"We will see the impact not in Baku," warned Stella, "because what comes in Baku was released in design like two months ago. But definitely it will impact the next round of upgrades."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by BillH, 31/03/2023 1:00

"From memory Adrian Newey had to get stuck in and fix the 2004 situation.
He’s not at McLaren.
Most telling though is the goal to be “top four”.
Whatever happened to being number one as a goal?"

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2. Posted by kenji, 30/03/2023 22:32

"@Mad Matt.....You may well be right however Norris's put down of Piastris superior speed by saying 'I let him go' was a cheap shot at the first hurdle. Norris may well blow Ozcar into the weeds but as you say 'early days'."

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3. Posted by Mad Matt, 30/03/2023 19:15

"I think you might be reading too much into a few comments. But we can agree that it's early days and that Oscar has had a solid start."

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4. Posted by kenji, 30/03/2023 12:30

"At a slight tangent....Norris will be keen to dominate this weekend as the press et al have been 'blowin smoke' for the last two weeks about Piastri's potential and he won't like that one bit. His petulance and condescension vis a vis the team orders and Pistri's better driving just shows how he is reacting to the pressure. Early days of course and I'm still expecting Norris to come out on top due to the fact that this is his fourth year in F1 and the fact he's Zak Brown's golden child. Oscar just needs to continue to hone his craft and then we'll see where it all leads.Maybe if McLaren can't give him a decent car Ferrari will make the 'Italian connection' and offer him a seat alongside Leclerc. That's something I would love to see."

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A "kind of B-car" for McLaren

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