McLaren has revealed how positioning on track and the weather conditions created the error in pitting Lando Norris a lap too late in Formula 1’s Canadian Grand Prix.
Norris excelled in preserving his Intermediates in the opening stages to surge into the lead from third place and opened up a seven-second gap over Max Verstappen.
However, Logan Sargeant’s crash on Lap 25 prompted a Safety Car that altered the race as the divers behind Norris pitted a lap earlier and the Briton dropped to third.
Stella explained how Norris trundling down the back straight when the pace car was deployed created a split-second decision on the pit wall that McLaren got wrong.
When discussing how marginal Norris was to the pit lane to be able to get in at that moment and retain his lead, Stella told Autosport post-race: “We took a quick look.
“It looks like he was one and a half seconds from the pit from the time when you actually needed to turn, or you’re going straight.
“In hindsight, we could have told the driver ‘in case of Safety Car – pit’, so he would have just reacted instinctively to pit.”
The Italian also divulged that the Woking-based squad deliberated over whether switching on to new Intermediates was wise with another rain shower on the horizon.
Although Norris declared that a potential win was squandered during that phase, Stella contends that McLaren’s rivals had less to lose when electing to change tyres.
“We were monitoring the intensity of the rain,” he added. “And this intensity in the last few minutes was kind of reducing.
“So we didn’t want to pit unnecessarily for a new set of Inters when this set of inters could have been good enough in case of a very light rain.
“I think it was much easier for the car behind to kinda do the opposite, for instance, as Lando. I think that’s a little bit unlucky, not only with the timing of when the Safety Car was deployed, with respect to Lando’s position on track, but also the time of the Safety Car in the race, because at that time, Lando was by far the fastest car around on track.”
Norris later prevailed during a short battle with polesitter George Russell’s Mercedes to clinch a fourth second-place finish this term, 3.8 seconds behind Verstappen.
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