McLaren & Ferrari Bring Upgrades—But Will They Deliver?
· Yahoo Sports
AUSTIN, Texas — It’s Free Practice Friday in the Lone Star State, and the teams have announced their upgrades for this weekend’s United States Grand Prix.
Ferrari lead the top four constructors with four updates. Focused on increased downforce from their floor, the Italian outfit brought a new floor body and associated side pod inlets.
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Ferrari also brought a new diffuser to efficiently improve aerodynamic load at the back of the car.
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Speaking to the media on Thursday, including FanAmp, Charles Leclerc explained how an upgrade package can impact the running order under the new regulations and shared his insights on Ferrari’s upside on Sunday.
On how a single weekend can shuffle the top teams, Leclerc said, “I think that's what we've seen recently is that as soon as someone brings an upgrade, even if it's not a very significant one, that's enough to go from fourth of this group to first of this group, and I think Red Bull have shown that.”
Despite the ambitious package, however, Leclerc downplayed the expectations for Ferrari in Austin. “I hope we'll show that [a single upgrade can make a big impact] this weekend with a few upgrades we brought, but it's nothing significant, so on paper that shouldn't change the hierarchy that we've seen in the past races.
“I strongly believe that it will be very tight just like it's been in the last few races.”
Another team that brought extensive updates to compete at COTA is the reigning Constructors’ Champion, McLaren. With changes to the front and rear corner, as well as a new diffuser geometry, McLaren have brought a package focused on performance.
Andrea Stella shared with the media on Thursday that McLaren plans to unveil their upgrades across the three phases of the tripleheader, with packages at Austin, Mexico, and Brazil.
When asked about how these upgrades will aid McLaren in the fight for third place in the Constructors’ Championship, Norris confirmed the team is at risk of being passed by Red Bull.
“We have a big gap, especially to Red Bull lately. Upgrades are not always just, you put them on and things work, and they're not always easy to get the full potential out of.
“I think we've had a car which has just been, again, still so difficult to drive.
"I'm sure they'll always continue to have little bits over the next course of the few weeks. But now the team is still working very hardon this year, it's not like we're just like, ‘think of next year and forget this year’.”
At the top of the championship table, Mercedes elected to bring zero changes to Austin and have confirmed that both Kimi Antonelli and George Russell will both run the Malaysia specification. This comes after a split strategy in Singapore that resulted in Antonelli running the Malaysia upgrades, with Russell running the previous specification.
With the top constructors all downplaying their upside for this weekend, the focus now shifts to Free Practice 1 on Friday afternoon to see how these updates look on track.