McLaren advancing cautiously despite second straight podium

McLaren boss Andrea Stella is buoyed by McLaren’s second consecutive podium finish but isn’t willing to call his team a permanent front-running fixture without a bigger sample size of circuits.The team is enjoying a powerful resurgence from the midfield into the leading pack thanks to a major three-part upgrade package, the first phase of which was brought to the car at the Austrian Grand Prix at the start of the month.Lando Norris qualified and finished fourth at the Red Bull Ring before leading teammate Oscar Piastri to a 2-3 qualification and 2-4 finish at the British Grand Prix on the following weekend.The team remained cautious about the significance of the results at circuits it has traditionally performed strongly at, given their lack of slow-speed corners — McLaren’s weakness.The Hungaroring was thought to be a much sterner test, and Lando Norris categorically ruled out another podium finish upon arriving in Budapest. McLaren locked out the second row, though, and Norris finished second again — in doing so, mounting an increasingly convincing argument that the MCL60 can be a regular frontrunner.“Genuinely, I don’t think we expected to be here this weekend, especially in P2,” Norris said. “A positive surprise again to be where we are. We’re very happy because it’s my first time having consecutive podiums. To be P2 is a fantastic result in a car that probably shouldn’t be P2.“It’s another podium in a place we probably weren’t expecting a podium, which probably makes it even more special.”Team principal Stella echoes Norris’s comments, saying he was pleased for further confirmation of the car’s progress.“We certainly come out of this event encouraged that we have made progress in medium speed,” he said. “That’s what we certainly see from comparison with our competition.“The other important confirmation is that we made progress in terms of tire degradation, and we see that having improved the car actually kind of brings improvement to how you use tires at the same time.“It is a kind of common knowledge — we know that having good load helps tires — but it was good to confirm it once again. This makes us certainly a bit more optimistic for the future than we were after Silverstone.”Part of McLaren’s stronger-than-expected Hungary result it that the Hungaroring has been moved from the slow-speed column of circuits into the medium-speed bracket owing to natural increases in downforce under the regulations as well as a relatively new high-grip track surface.Stella said that shielded some of the MCL60’s weaknesses, which were evident in only the slowest parts of the track.“We also see that we do lose time in the three low-speed corners — in (Turn 1), in the chicane and in (Turn 12) — confirming there is still work to do in low speed,” he said.That telemetry meant he remains cautious about the upcoming grand prix in Belgium despite, on paper, Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps being a very high speed track.“Even if Spa is normally mentioned as one of the higher speed tracks, in reality the highest speed corner, which is (Turn 10), is flat in qualifying,” he said.“There’s a lot of lap time in (Turn 1), which is 80kph, in (Turn 8), which is 100kph, and in the last chicane, which is 90kph.“I don’t want to repeat myself, but I go with some care, because in these three corners, at the moment, we see that we lose time. That’s where we are.”