McLaren confirm when upgrades will arrive - and it’ll be a wait for Norris

The MCL60 is set to benefit from major developments at the F1 Canadian Grand Prix in June, and the F1 British Grand Prix in July.

But, with Emilia-Romagna, Monaco and Spain the next three grands prix weekends, it might be a frustrating wait for their drivers.

“The next sizable package of updates will arrive before the summer break,” team principal Andrea Stella said. 

“We are planning to spread the updates between the Canadian Grand Prix and the British Grand Prix.”

The F1 Austrian Grand Prix is sandwiched by Canada and Silverstone, but McLaren will not introduce anything new at the Red Bull Ring.

“We will definitely avoid bringing new updates to Austria, because that will be a sprint shootout and sprint race weekend,” Stella said. 

“And given the amount of updates we will bring we are not confident in bringing them to an event that will be very similar to Baku.

“In Baku we brought the new floor, but in those races we will bring bigger things and the floor will be introduced in Britain.”

McLaren have endured a disappointing start to 2023.

Norris and Piastri have both scored points in just one of the five grands prix so far.

Brief optimism over the new floor introduced in Azerbaijan, as Norris finished sixth, was extinguished when he finished 17th in Miami a week later.

Norris had expressed hope that the new floor was just the first step to serious development but it seems like he will be made to wait.

Next weekend’s F1 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix will see Mercedes and Ferrari bring high-profile upgrades in a bid to chase down Red Bull.

But McLaren?

“There will be small developments at Imola,” Stella said. 

“But only minor ones compared to the step we need to take to be consistently in the points, which is our goal.”