McLaren labels upgraded Ferrari best F1 chassis after…

Lewis Hamilton's performance in Barcelona, which delivered his first victory for Ferrari, prompted McLaren team boss Andrea Stella to conclude that the Scuderia now has the best chassis in Formula 1.

The Italian believes the Barcelona Grand Prix provided "clear indications" that the SF-26 is now the fastest car through the corners - particularly in medium-speed sections - while Mercedes retains an overall advantage thanks to its more powerful power unit.

Ferrari arrived in Barcelona with the most extensive upgrade package on the grid, centred around a revised front wing and nose assembly, as well as a significant floor redesign. The package also included changes to the diffuser and sidepod bodywork, with the aim of extracting more downforce while improving aerodynamic efficiency and balance.

Hamilton managed to qualify second on Saturday, securing his first front-row start as a Ferrari driver, before going on to beat George Russell's Mercedes on Sunday.

While it remains unclear whether he would have come out on top without the Virtual Safety Car intervention, which allowed him to lose less time than his rivals during his final pitstop, Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur suggested Hamilton still had enough pace in hand to beat the Mercedes drivers regardless.

Stella believes the Barcelona circuit, which traditionally provides one of the clearest indicators of relative car performance, offered enough evidence to conclude that Ferrari's upgraded machine is now the strongest chassis in the field.

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari (Photo by: Clive Mason / Getty Images)

"I think this race gives us very clear indications," Stella told media including Motorsport.com after the race. "I think these indications, in a way, are consistent with what we knew already. I think these indications are that Ferrari, at the moment, is the car with the best chassis.

"We see in the middle sector, especially in the medium-speed corner, that Ferrari is the fastest in the corners, not necessarily the fastest in the straights."

McLaren, meanwhile, still has work to do. Lando Norris finished third in Barcelona thanks to Kimi Antonelli's retirement, but spent much of the race chasing the two Mercedes drivers.

"We see that, from a McLaren point of view, we are competitive in the high-speed corners," Stella noted. "Like you are in corner 3, 9, corner 14, but overall we struggle with grip in medium-speed and low-speed.

"Very clear indications, as we knew already, that we have to add grip to the car of an aerodynamic nature, so add load onto the tyres - and then we also have to improve the way we interact with the tyres in terms of qualifying preparation for what comes to the first corner, for instance.

"We see that often in qualifying we lose time at the start, but then in conditions like this, in the race, we would like to reduce tyre degradation. So, quite a clear agenda from a performance point of view. We need to add aerodynamic performance, we need to add solutions for better tyre exploitation."

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, Lando Norris, McLaren (Photo by: Michael Potts / LAT Images via Getty Images)

Stella expects Ferrari to remain competitive at the Austrian Grand Prix in two weeks' time, but still believes Mercedes possesses the strongest overall package when both chassis and power unit performance are taken into account.

"Austria, is a slightly different circuit," he said. "Here, the stability and the braking and turning is so essential here in Barcelona. There it's more like straight line braking and then you go in some corners into low speed. So it's a slightly different circuit compared to here, but I would expect that Ferrari remains the fastest car in the corners.

"Probably Mercedes over a single lap the best car overall when the chassis and the power unit are both considered.

"We aim for the coming races to develop our car further by bringing some upgrades, but at the same time we are certain that our competitors will also have some upgrades. For us, honestly, we want to look at our own trajectory, we want to make sure that race by race we improve our car. And then we kind of let the results take care of themselves. So the maximum focus at the moment is internal, what we need to do to improve the car."