McLaren boss Andrea Stella has revealed how not being pressured from behind enabled the side’s rapid pace in mixed conditions in Formula 1’s Canadian Grand Prix.
Lando Norris had slipped around eight seconds behind George Russell and Max Verstappen when a sudden burst saw him catch and pass the pair in successive laps.
As McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri was catching up to Russell and Verstappen, Norris accelerated clear to establish a seven-second plus advantage out in the lead.
Stella explained that McLaren’s comfortable margin over the cars behind in the opening laps allowed both drivers to preserve their Intermediates better than its rivals.
However, the Italian has acknowledged that it wasn’t a tactical decision revolving around the competition but rather an impending shower that loomed on the forecast.
“We knew that it would not have been easy to make it to the rain expected around lap 30, 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.
“There’s no magic, it’s just the position we were in the first stint meant that we could apply this strategy with no loss – because we didn’t have pressure from behind.”
McLaren would squander first position, though, when Logan Sargeant’s stranded Williams triggered a Safety Car and Norris was not instructed to pit on that exact lap.
The cars behind all capitalised on the intervention to switch to a second Intermediate set, while Norris toured behind the pace car and emerged in third once he pitted.
But while Norris claimed the Woking-based squad lost a probable win, Stella reckons that Mercedes’ later pace in drier conditions showed it would’ve been a tall order.
Asked whether there was other reasons that could be attributed to Norris missing out to Verstappen, Stella responded: “Not later in the race.
“I think later in the race, things unfolded… Mercedes should have finished ahead of Lando.
“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 has suggested that Mercedes retained the raw speed to reel in Norris even in the circumstance where an ill-timed Safety Car had not have eroded his margin.
“I think Mercedes, they could have caught up – because they were a few tenths of a second faster than us,” he reiterated.
“We really needed a decent advantage to make it safely to the end.
“But obviously, this is a little bit academic because in a race like this [with] two or three safety cars… you have to assume they will happen and also, the weather was around.
“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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