McLaren has revealed Mercedes’ choice to run the Soft tyre for the last stint at Formula 1’s British Grand Prix duped the side into the call which cost it a possible win.
Lando Norris was controlling proceedings out in the lead at Silverstone when McLaren responded a lap late on the crossover to slicks and Lewis Hamilton got ahead.
The Briton was unable to recover the lost ground in the closing exchanges and slipped behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen as his Soft rubber degraded in the final laps.
Despite Norris claiming that he contributed to the spurned chance, McLaren boss Andrea Stella insisted post-race that the team was accountable for the errors made.
That concerned both the timing and the compound selected as Stella conceded that Mercedes switching onto Softs prompted McLaren to diverge from its initial plan.
The Italian has elucidated that the Woking-based squad was cautious that Norris would have lost too much ground on the Medium as he generated heat in the rubber.
“Definitely the fact that Lewis went on Soft is one of the disturbing factors towards the fact that we actually were going on Medium, if makes sense,” Stella explained.
“I think there the bet was will the Soft make it to the end and how much gap will the Soft gain at the start in transition compared to going there on Medium?
“Because the Medium will be faster at the end but how much time do you lose in the first two, three laps on a Medium.
“And is there any risk that you put a wheel on a wet patch and you lose the car.
“I think in this respect I think we were too influenced by the fact that Lewis went on Soft, I think we should have been more like Medium is the right tyre.”
Stella reiterated that Norris was blameless and was adamant that McLaren should have shown more conviction to overrule the Briton’s desire to move onto the Softs.
Asked whether McLaren needed to be more proactive, he replied: “I think that’s right and please don’t think the decision to go on Soft is because Lando said we should go Soft.
“We have the possibility to make the call, we have more information, we have more people
“So the responsibility of going on Soft rather than on Medium which would have been a better call stands with the team.
“It’s 100 per cent my responsibility and the people, the driver kind of gives his point of view that is a point of view.
“And in that case, it should have been the people to make a call saying we go Medium because the Soft may not make it to the end.”
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