McLaren team boss, Andrea Stella says that fears the rules introduced last year would compromise innovation have not proved to be the case.

The rules overhaul, the brainchild of Ross Brawn and his technical team, are all part of the plan to level the playing field.

However, such was the scope of the overhaul that technical directors (and fans) feared not just serious restriction in terms of innovation but a (further) step towards a dreaded spec-series, a move that might surely be of interest to some at F1 Towers.

However, a year into the overhaul, McLaren's former technical director, Stella, who was appointed team principal in December following the departure of Andreas Seidl to Sauber, admits to being pleasantly surprised by the level of development that is still possible.

"I have to admit, and I think most teams should admit the same, that before the new generation of cars touched the ground, we thought that the regulations were quite restrictive," he said, according to Motorsport.com.

"But interestingly, as soon as you start the journey, you realise there's a lot of performance, especially on the floor.

"This ground effect can be exploited from a technical point of view beyond what I think anybody in Formula 1 would have anticipated.

"If you see the level of sophistication of the geometries, you may see on some cars, especially possibly in the parts facing the ground, so not necessarily very visible, and the complexity of the flow field, and the vertical structures that you want to generate under the car, then these went beyond what the regulations would have expected. That's from a technical point of view, a fascinating journey," he admitted.

Indeed, the freedom to innovate has allowed some teams to get it right and others to get it wrong.

Sadly, McLaren appears to be one of the latter.

"From a spectacle point of view it means that whoever does a better job, like Red Bull is doing at the moment, can gain a consistent competitive advantage beyond what could have been anticipated," he said. "So there's technical reasons why that is, and ultimately means there's a premium for those who do a better job than the others."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Max Noble, 18/04/2023 11:00

"The Mazda Rotary engined Le Mans car was instantly banned by the FIA, so it never got to defend its well won title. The FIA always seek to limit innovation to “level the playing field”. As such we simply do not know what amazing ideas never happened over the last 25 years because of overly prescriptive rules. Sliding doors blah blah. Etc. Etc. "

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2. Posted by Abies, 18/04/2023 9:09

"Hope MCL60's upgrades starting in Baku can bring the team to best of rest for 2023 & a good basis for 2024..."

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Fears over restrictive rules unfounded, says Stella

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