McLaren boss Andrea Stella downplays expectations ahead of F1 Bahrain Grand Prix

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri took turns topping the timing sheets in the first two practice sessions at the Bahrain Grand Prix, with Norris posting the fasting time in FP2 and Piastri nipping his teammate during FP2. Rivals from Ferrari, Mercedes, and Red Bull have pointed to McLaren as the dominant force on the grid ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix.

But McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella did his best to downplay expectations on Friday ahead of race weekend.

Asked about McLaren’s chances during the FIA Press Conference, Stella called Bahrain the “most difficult venue” for the team on the first part of the 2025 Formula 1 schedule.

“That’s interesting, because my expectation is that Bahrain is the most difficult venue for McLaren of the first part of the season,” began Stella. “I think during [pre-season testing in Bahrain] I’m not sure we saw that we were enjoying any advantage in terms of first lap. The only thing we saw is that the car is gentle on the tires, which is a feature we couldn’t exploit very much in Suzuka, which was a very low-degradation circuit. This one is a high-degradation circuit, so if anything, that could be our strength.”

Stella quickly turned to qualifying, which was McLaren’s undoing at the Japanese Grand Prix last week. Norris and Piastri looked fastest throughout the week in Suzuka, but Max Verstappen nipped Norris by 0.012 seconds to take pole position, as Piastri settled for third behind the two.

With overtaking coming at a premium during the Japanese Grand Prix, McLaren was left to settle with a double podium, but one that had Verstappen on the top step.

“But to capitalize on this strength, you have to qualify well,” continued Stella. “You don’t have to be stuck in traffic. There are a few things that we need to get right. And yet, in this kind of low-speed dominated configuration, I’m not sure that McLaren will enjoy much advantage at all.”

Already this week Norris has pointed to the lower-speed corners in Bahrain, which could cause problems for the MCL39.

The McLaren boss admitted that the MCL39 is a “competitive” car, and ahead of its predecessor, but again downplayed expectations by pointing to the narrow margins on the 2025 F1 grid.

“The MCL39 is certainly a competitive car. It’s faster than last year’s car, which was already fast and reliable,” stated Stella. “We needed to embrace some innovation and courage to change pretty much the entire car. I cannot thank enough all the men and women at McLaren that delivered the performance we gave ourselves as an objective.

“Having said that, I think the margins are very small. They keep being small. If we look at China in qualifying, it was a bit of a mixed bag. Japan – in qualifying we got beaten, in the race we got beaten. So I think we have to be quite realistic as to the situation in terms of performance,” added Stella.

He then downplayed talk of potential McLaren dominance this season.

“I hear sometimes talk about dominance, which I think is out of place – sometimes it’s pronounced by our competitors. Clearly everyone knows the game, everyone knows how to put pressure or attempt to put pressure on the rivals. But we are very grounded people. In fairness, we are very calm. We’re not going to get into this kind of bait,” said Stella.

“We know that we have to work hard to exploit the potential of the MCL39, and we have to work hard to keep improving the car.”

He also denied that Verstappen’s win in Japan was a wake-up call to the team.

“We didn’t need any wake-up call because we were not sleeping and certainly we were not dreaming,” Stella said. “We were wide awake, knowing that if we don’t capitalize on the full performance of the car, then we will be beaten, and if we capitalize, we may win by a very small margin.”

Last week McLaren’s strength took a hit during qualifying on Saturday, when Verstappen beat Norris and Piastri to pole. We’ll see tomorrow whether that cycle plays out again, or if McLaren indeed shows their strength in Bahrain.