Team boss Andrea Stella sees Miami’s 17th and 19th despite Lando Norris’ floor damage, Oscar Piastri’s brake-by-wire failure Grades are “reality checks”.

The “Supertime” metric, which compares each team’s fastest lap times throughout the race weekend, ranked McLaren as the slowest of the 10 Florida teams with a score of 1.82%.

This poor performance was blamed on the low-grip resurfaced asphalt, while the fifth-place result in the supertime in Baku at the previous round could be attributed to the loss only on the low-grip castle section.

According to former race engineer Stella, these aspects highlighted the shortcomings of the MCL60 car when the throttle was closed and the brakes were released.

The Italian explained: “There is a trend that is emerging. This trend is that when the grip is high, our cars gain competitiveness.

“We think this trend has to do with the fact that the less grip you have, the more time you have to spend off the brakes, off the gas. Our car doesn’t work very well in that situation.

“[When]the temperature is low – track temperature, ambient temperature – the car is happier. The driver can attack.

“If you attack the brakes, then you minimize this phase in the middle of the corner where you push the brakes off the gas. We were immediately competitive.

“For example, if we look at Baku, there’s new tarmac this year, the grip is high, in all the sections where you can brake hard, short corners like Turns 1 and 2, we’re competitive Force. Take off the accelerator for a short time and turn off the brakes.

“But if you look at the part of the castle that has to be rolled, even in Baku, we’re not very competitive. So, it’s a trend.”

Lando Norris, McLaren MCL60, Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL60

Photography: Andy Horn / motorsport pictures

Stella stressed the importance of McLaren isolating and understanding the trend so that a restructured technical department can iron it out through mid-season developments.

He continued: “It is important to understand this trend because it also leads the way in a way.

“We knew with the Baku upgrade (adjusting the floor) we increased some downforce, but we didn’t change the character of the car.

“So, I’m not surprised that in these low-grip conditions, spending a lot of time without the brakes, without the accelerator, we lost relative competitiveness.”

After identifying weaknesses, the team can offset limited CFD and wind tunnel allowances by focusing on finding solutions, Stella said.

He continued: “We’ve seen the car be strong in straight-line braking. We’ve seen the car be strong on the highway.”

“The advantage is that you can channel and focus your development… What we’ve learned in these early races is that we need to pay more attention to the situation: turn off the brakes, turn off the gas and steer to low speeds.”