McLaren, is it serious doctor?

After falling back in the hierarchy last year by finishing 5th, McLaren seems to have negotiated the 2023 turn even less well and is already assuming that it will be necessary to wait a few races before its real new car makes its debut on the track. Should we really be worried?

Published on 12/03/2023 à 17:28

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McLaren is having a difficult start to the season. © Xavi Bonilla / DPPI

Remember the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix, the first of the new era of ground effect. McLaren thought he had hit rock bottom, with a 14th and 15th place for Daniel Ricciardo et Lando Norris, far from his usual standards. A year later, in the same nocturnal setting of Sakhir, the papaya arrows plunged a little further into the abyss. To the point of only ending with one car, in 17th position and two laps behind the leader Max Verstappen.

Lando Norris finished last of the classified drivers. The Briton, forced and forced, also invented the strategy of six pit stops, to resupply the car with air due to a chronic pressure problem.

A catastrophic departure

His teammate Oscar piastri, who P