McLaren boss Andrea Stella has denied the team should hold regrets over its decision to pit Lando Norris before the Formula 1 Sao Paulo Grand Prix was red-flagged.
Norris had lost his pole position advantage to George Russell at the start, but he was pursuing the Mercedes driver as the two opened up a sizeable lead over the rest.
However, the race turned when Mercedes and McLaren opted to pit their drivers on Lap 24 as the rainfall got heavier, despite a Virtual Safety Car period having ended.
This dropped both drivers several spots that wouldn’t be retrieved as Franco Colapinto’s crash on Lap 32 triggered a red flag which allowed those ahead to swap tyres.
That included Max Verstappen, who won from 17th on the grid to help him move a step nearer to the title, and the two Alpines, who took a remarkable double podium.
However, Stella denied that McLaren’s pit wall committed a mistake as he insisted that switching rubber was the right choice based on the conditions at that moment.
“The first thing I would like to say is to congratulate Max for one of his best victories of his career, from where he started,” Stella told media including Motorsport Week.
“A great drive and also great pace, because he moved up the field thanks to the pace and also thanks to making a brave decision in the situation that then led to the red flag, by not stopping and staying out on tyres that were relatively worn at the time.
“This paid to the advantage of Max and the advantage of Alpine, and I think even Alpine also deserve definitely congratulations for the double podium finish.
“In terms of the episodes, for Lando, a loss of one position at the start, then we were faster than Russell but no way to overtake.
“Then at some stage when the rain started to increase, both drivers in fairness acknowledged that we needed new rubber to stay out in those conditions.
“The reason why this decision didn’t pay off is actually the rain became very intense, leading, together with the crash [of Colapinto], to a red flag.
“We thought at the time that with the Virtual Safety Car, and the increased amount of water on track, it was important to go on the new tyre.
“I think without the red flag, and with a little less intensity – which is always difficult to predict – it would have been quite difficult for the people that did not change the tyres.
“Sometimes you look brilliant because you commit to something, and it’s always easy to commit when you are behind, and you look like a hero.
“I am here congratulating them for their decisions, but at the same time I back the decision that we made, because it came with the full agreement of the drivers, the pit wall, and also a little bit of reason as to ‘we need to make sure that we stay on track because we compete for points, we compete for both championships, and we need to finish races’.
“Personally I am not very comfortable to leave a car out there with tyres that are pretty worn with that amount of water.
“So without the red flag, we would be commenting on another race here.”
McLaren not as competitive in the wet
Norris’ race continued to unravel as wide moments on two subsequent restarts – which Stella has attributed to a brake lock-up problem – saw him come home in sixth.
But while the Briton bagged pole in similar conditions and appeared a good bet to convert that position, Stella has admitted McLaren wasn’t as competitive in the wet.
“We also have to acknowledge that our car today didn’t enjoy any particular pace advantage, we weren’t the fastest car out there on intermediate tyres like we were on dry tyres,” he added.
“So if anything there’s the first opportunity to look into and see how we can go faster with intermediate tyres.”
READ MORE – Lando Norris denies errors cost him Brazil F1 win versus ‘way faster’ Red Bull
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