McLaren have been left encouraged by its assertion that Max Verstappen “didn’t have so much in hand” compared to past races in 2023 in Sunday’s Qatar Grand Prix.
Although its two cars started out of position due to deleted lap times in qualifying, both drivers recovered to ensure McLaren achieved a successive double podium finish.
Oscar Piastri, who beat Verstappen to the Sprint victory, ended up only 4.8s adrift of the Dutchman, who led every lap from pole position en route to his 14th win of 2023.
But McLaren team boss Andrea Stella concedes that its pace versus Red Bull was “flattered” by the FIA imposing mandatory 18-lap stints to alleviate tyre concerns.
Verstappen pitted later than both McLarens during each stint amid Red Bull’s attempts to preserve its race-leading position against the potential intervention of a Safety Car.
“Well, I think, first of all, the [Red Bull] strategy is a little suboptimal from a racing time point of view,” Stella said. “But you do it because it’s the safest strategy.
“When you have the margin, you know, you do that because it protects you, for instance, from a late Safety Car. So there’s a flattering element in the fact that they were on a strategy that loses time.”
“Secondly, I’m not sure how much they were pushing,” he added.
Nevertheless, Stella believes Verstappen had less lap time in reserve than usual in Qatar, rueing that his cars didn’t start nearer the sharp end to apply pressure.
“I was certainly this time more than ever perceiving that maybe Max didn’t have, you know, so much in hand like he might have had other times, and it would have been good to just be there with him at the start, then put him under a little bit of pressure.
“Please don’t feel that in what I’m saying. We are now there to win. We are very, very realistic that there’s still work to do.
“But once you start that in the first position, then it can become tactical sometime, you know, and you can gain a position at the start and you can defend you may have two cars and so you are conditioned to do something.”
Stella also contends that the high-speed Lusail International Circuit heavily favoured McLaren’s car, adding that Mercedes would have been a greater threat without its two cars colliding at Turn 1 on the first lap.
Despite being rooted to the foot of the order, George Russell climbed his way through the field to take fourth on a four-stop strategy.
“I think also that this track is a very suitable track for our car,” he acknowledged. “So I wouldn’t expect for the coming races that this is necessarily not only the pecking order but also the level of competitiveness.”
“And at final point, Mercedes weren’t far at all today like George was very strong in terms of race pace and it’s a pity for them that they, you know, lost all the time at the start and that that’s an unfortunate situation otherwise they would have been there with us I think.”
But Stella still echoed the comments of Norris, who highlighted that McLaren’s tyre degradation proved to be quite competitive during Sunday’s 57-lap encounter.
“We were actually quite happy with the degradation of the tyres when we needed to push at the end of a stint we still had the pace to do that,” he added. “Lando’s pace at the end of the first stint was very strong, allowed him to gain positions.
“I think it would have been possibly a two-stop just because at some stage the tyre might have run out of rubber, but the pace I think it would have been good for a longer stint. So certainly you wouldn’t have done three stops today [without the mandatory stint lengths].”
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