McLaren F1 Team Executive Director of Racing, Andrea Stella, says it’s great to be back racing on the streets of Monaco, but the team were ‘fighting against the clock’ to get test runs done due to shortened time in FP1 and FP2.
The British-based team stole the headlines in Monace before teams even arrived after they released a special one-off Gulf livery for Monaco Grand Prix last Sunday, and they will look to maintain their impressive start to the 2021 season and cement third-place even further.
However, their closest rivals Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow looked incredibly strong around the streets of Monte Carlo on Thursday, as they took a one-two in the second practice session, while Lando Norris finished the afternoon in sixth and Daniel Ricciardo in fifteenth.
Despite falling short against Ferrari in both practice sessions, Stella says it was challenging to test in the shortened one-hour session of practice in Monaco but was happy with the data they collected ahead of qualifying.
“It is a great feeling to be back in Monaco, it’s full of history – but it’s also a very challenging place to run Formula 1 cars!
“With these shortened FP1 and FP2 sessions you always feel that you’re fighting the clock for the time to test things – and here there’s quite a lot to test in terms of set-up and understanding the tyres.
“Overall, we were able to get through our plan and we’re happy with the data we’ve acquired. There’s work to be done tonight and tomorrow to improve the car to make sure we’re ready for qualifying which is, of course, always important here.”
