McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has confirmed that his team had no prior knowledge of Ferrari’s filming day at the newly-built Madring circuit in Madrid.
Ferrari became the first Formula 1 team to run their cars at the brand new Spanish venue, heading to the capital last month to complete their 200km filming day allocation.
The Scuderia used the session to get an early look at the layout of the track, which had only recently been completed ahead of its planned place on the Formula 1 calendar.
Stella acknowledged the surprise nature of the test but was quick to downplay its competitive significance, citing the limited running and challenging track conditions.
The McLaren boss noted that the surface at Madring was described as “horribly slippery,” given the circuit had essentially still been in a construction phase when Ferrari arrived.
He also pointed out that the tyres used during filming days are not representative of those used across a race weekend, further limiting the data Ferrari could have extracted.
Despite the lack of prior warning, Ferrari did share images and footage from the session with the other teams, which Stella said helped to level what was already a fairly modest advantage.
“We were not informed that Ferrari would have had this session in Madrid,” Stella said, before adding that “some images or filming was anyhow shared with the other teams.”
Stella acknowledged that there could still be a small benefit from the session, saying teams would gain references and avoid having to rely entirely on assumed data for a venue nobody had previously visited.
“There’s always a little bit that you can learn,” Stella said, explaining that with this year’s power units, teams gain useful references from any track time, even in imperfect conditions.
The McLaren boss was ultimately relaxed about the situation, describing the test as “nothing that goes against the regulations” and suggesting any advantage would quickly fade once race weekend began.
“I think after a few laps in Madrid, we will have forgotten about that, and we will just get along with just focusing on the race weekend, so not a big deal,” Stella concluded.