McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella has explained it imposed team orders during the closing stages of Sunday’s Qatar Grand Prix to avoid potential tyre failures.
Both Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris squandered starting berths inside the top four after having lap times deleted post-qualifying for exceeding track limits.
Piastri, however, capitalised on the Mercedes pair tangling at Turn 1 to move up to second from sixth, with Norris progressively rising through the order from 10th to third.
Norris had steadily closed up to his team-mate but was instructed to hold station beyond the final round of stops to preserve McLaren’s position against George Russell, who was lining up a stint on the Soft tyre.
“We’re going to hold position. Bring it home,” Norris’ race engineer, Will Joseph, told him.
Stella reveals McLaren wanted to avoid the risk of its two drivers pushing flat-out and potentially sustaining a puncture amid concerns over the tyres across the weekend.
Ahead of the race, the FIA had mandated maximum stint lengths of 18 laps, having already reduced the track limits at Turns 12 and 13 by 80cm after Friday’s running.
“The drivers have been very close all weekend you know, within the space of a couple of tenths all weekend and even today they were again very close and it’s a mega result for McLaren,” Stella said.
“Lando progressed from P10 to the podium, and we are in a place in which we don’t have to forget that in 2021 Lando was P4, I think, and a few laps to go he had a tyre failure and he finished P9.
“So you just don’t want to take this risk. You don’t want to induce your drivers to push and then a track limit penalty or as soon as you tell them to push, they use the kerbs because it makes the track so much faster.
“So we just implemented ‘Stay away from [the] kerbs and think about bringing it home’. And both drivers understood it very well and Lando was very happy in the in-lap. He was very complimentary with the team.
“So, you know, it’s a point of strength that our drivers help us manage the situation so proactively and constructively.”
Norris initially appeared to challenge the call before accepting McLaren’s stance to follow Piastri home, completing a consecutive double podium for the British outfit.
“Why do you want to do that? We have a big gap. I’m clearly a lot quicker,” was the Briton’s immediate response to the request.
Stella, though, admits that McLaren always encourages such queries, insisting that it’s part of the Woking squad’s protocol in order to clarify the driver’s view from the cockpit.
“In terms of the message you heard, this is part of our protocol, I would say, because when we give drivers distraction, we tell them to challenge us because we want to make sure we understand your point of view,” he explained.
“Okay. Like, challenge us. Tell us exactly what you think. We will reassess the situation and come back to you. But once we come back to you, just respect it. And this is exactly what happened today. So that’s why you hear back, we ask drivers to chime in.”
Norris, meanwhile, was uncertain whether he would have been able to mitigate the dirty air effect to overhaul his team-mate had the McLaren pair been allowed to race.
Asked if he thinks he could have gained a place without team orders, Norris replied: “I’m not sure. Whenever I got a bit closer towards Oscar, the dirty air was quite a big struggle. Like, even with the backmarkers, as soon as you got within three seconds or something, you immediately lost time.
“Around a circuit where it’s so much about load and these long corners, as soon as you have a bit of dirty air, it’s a big struggle.
“So I think my pace was definitely a bit better. But it’s hard to know.
“And I mean, Oscar has done a very good job this weekend. He’s beaten me. He’s been extremely quick and he’s made less mistakes, and he’s come out on top. So hats off to him too.”
