McLaren learned from the Verstappen-Hamilton battle for its own title fight

McLaren team boss Andrea Stella reckons that the Woking-based outfit has learned from the sporting and technical controversies that happened during the 2021 F1 season.

McLaren find themselves in a very strong position this year. After several tough seasons, the Woking-based outfit raised its competitiveness last season with an early upgrade package, and managed to carry over this form for the current championship.

The team claimed its first victory this year at the Miami Grand Prix courtesy of Lando Norris while his team-mate Oscar Piastri secured his own maiden F1 triumph in Budapest. This followed by three victories - Norris won in Zandvoort and Singapore and Piastri was victorious in Baku.

The five victories and the string of podium finishes see McLaren lead the constructors' championship and the team is poised to clinch its first teams' title since the 1998 season, heading second-placed Ferrari by 36 points.

Asked what McLaren was able to learn from the controversy-filled 2021 F1 season which saw Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton and their respective teams Red Bull and Mercedes go through a series of sporting and technical battles, team boss Andrea Stella insists that his outfit always intends to analyse situations of the past to be able to handle different circumstances better.

"Well, first of all, as you were making this question, I felt a little bit of pride in the fact that now is McLaren that is part of this contention. 2021, you know, is in the history of Formula 1.

"It will stay there for a long, long time for various reasons. But like I say, first of all, let me express a bit of pride to be there now with McLaren. There's always a lot you can learn from the past and actually one thing we say internally is that let's try to learn from situations without us being protagonists of these situations.

"So we definitely look at that season, we looked even if we want to talk about some hot topics, even the close racing between Max and Hamilton, we looked at the mutual monitoring, as you said, between the teams, which is normal practice, but definitely, as you contend at this level, you need to pay extra attention in analysing what competitors do from a technical point of view, from a sporting point of view.

"So, yes, 2021 is a reference season, like many others, in fairness. and we try and learn as much as possible," concluded the Italian.