McLaren’s Andrea Stella Reflects on Lando Norris’ Near-Win at Canadian GP
In a thrilling Canadian Grand Prix marked by mixed conditions, Lando Norris fought his way to the front of the pack, temporarily passing Formula 1 standings leader Max Verstappen and polesitter George Russell. However, Norris and the McLaren team opted not to immediately respond to the first safety car, instead choosing to tour slowly behind Bernd Maylander’s Mercedes while their rivals switched tires.
As a result, when Norris stopped a lap later, he found himself back behind the Red Bull and Mercedes. According to Team Principal Andrea Stella, the timing of the first pitstop was the decisive factor in Norris missing out on his second win of the Formula 1 calendar.
“I think later in the race, things unfolded… Mercedes should have finished ahead of Lando,” Stella explained in the Team Principals Press Conference. “So if anything, we maximised what was available after the safety car. Without the safety car, then I think Lando could have accumulated such a large advantage that then we could have tried to make it to the end on the dry tyres.”
Stella acknowledged that even a sizeable gap wouldn’t have guaranteed victory as the track dried out, citing Mercedes’ pace.
“I think Mercedes, they could have caught up – because they were a few tenths of a second faster than us. We really needed a decent advantage to make it safely to the end.”
The McLaren Team Principal praised Lando Norris’ impressive performance in the first stint, where he stretched out a sizeable gap over Verstappen and Russell as the track dried and everyone remained on intermediates. Stella attributed this to the team’s strategic decision to save tires early, anticipating the second weather front.
“We knew that it would not have been easy to make it to the rain expected around lap 30 initially, it would have been difficult for the intermediate tyres to survive that long,” he said. “So because we had no pressure, we started to save the tyres very, very early, even when [it] kind of wasn’t necessary, trying to find the cold patches or wet patches to make sure that the tyres stayed in good condition for when the track would have been more challenging.”
Ultimately, Stella expressed satisfaction with the result, acknowledging the unpredictability of the race.
“We knew that it was going to be a race decided by various scenarios and ultimately, I think we are happy with the results.”
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