F1 News
McLaren have to "extract the absolute maximum" to score any points in USA
- Nicolás Quarles van Ufford
Despite generally setting the pace in midfield for most of the 2019 season, McLaren think they'll have to bring their A-game to the United States Grand Prix if they want to walk away with any points from the weekend.
The Woking-based team are coming off the back of an uncharacteristically poor weekend in Mexico, with the team scoring no points as Lando Norris retired while Carlos Sainz finished in 13th.
The race pace at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez was a cause for concern, particularly on the hard compound, with Sainz getting overtaken by multiple midfield cars in a matter of minutes.
Now, with one day of practice done at COTA, Andrea Stella knows the side have their work cut out for them.
"Today was busy. In addition to the normal programme to work on car set-up and tyres, we had experimental 2020 tyres to evaluate and also some specific tests we wanted to perform in preparation for next year," the team's performance director said.
"Overall, the sessions went as planned with no delays and no problems, and we’re very happy with our work today.
“Based on Friday running, it looks like being another weekend in which the midfield is very compact. Our aim is to get into Q3 tomorrow and score points on Sunday. To do that we’ll have to extract the absolute maximum from the car.”