McLaren F1 Team Sporting Director, Gil De Ferran has refused to be drawn into making predictions on the Woking-based team’s position in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship pecking order.
Former Indy 500 winner, De Ferran stated that “It’s difficult to gauge exactly where we are” as F1’s tight midfield battle has seemingly tightened further over the winter months, with the final day of pre-season testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya highlighting this with five teams all within four-tenths of a second. De Ferran’s McLaren team at the heart of that cluster.
De Ferran stated “From a competitive perspective, it’s difficult to gauge exactly where we are. People are doing different things all the time – at different times of the day, with different fuel loads and tyres, so it’s hard to confidently be precise about where we rank compared to the rest of the field. “
While De Ferran couldn’t be sure of the competitiveness of McLaren’s perennial rivals he did state his pleasure at the job done over the pre-season tests by the Woking side that left them as one of only five teams that managed to break into the 1:16s.
“We came to testing with a few goals in mind – to do a lot of laps to ensure reliability and sign off systems, to understand our new car and the new Pirelli tyres, and perhaps most importantly, to integrate our new drivers into the team and prepare them as best we can for the season ahead. I think we’ve accomplished all of these things satisfactorily” stated De Ferran.
With these goals completed, McLaren will look to the Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne, for this year’s Formula 1 season’s curtain-raiser on 15-17 March, with Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris at the helm of the MCL34.
