McLaren boss Andrea Stella has explained why the team will enter the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix in the dark, having endured a nightmarish Saturday.
The day started in the worst possible way, with a double DNF in the Sprint Race, as Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris came together after Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber caused a domino effect behind them.
Not only did this give Max Verstappen victory to take a further eight points out of both drivers, but it left the team blind going into qualifying, as the Sprint would have been a worthwhile exercise to gain valuable knowledge before Grand Prix qualifying.
Norris would do enough to line up on the front row, but was a near three-tenths off Verstappen, with Piastri down in sixth.
Not only would the Sprint have enabled McLaren to have taken vital learnings, but mechanics were then called-upon to repair both cars, as Stella explained to media including Motorsport Week.
“Yeah, the fact that we didn’t run the Sprint was costly, not only because of the points we missed, but also because it created very intense and extensive operations in the garage,” he said.
“We needed to change the rear end of both cars and replace the front suspension and floor on Oscar’s car.
“So, it’s been a significant amount of damage and a significant burden from an operational point of view.”
Stella praises McLaren mechanics amid ‘valuable information’ loss ahead of US GP
Stella was quick to praise the whole crew for their hard work in ensuring both Piastri and Norris’ cars were repaired promptly for the qualifying hour, and further explained how the crash caused the loss of data and information, vital to its quest for pole position.
“I want to take the opportunity to thank all the mechanics and everyone involved with the operations because, given the volume of work, everything was executed with precision, and we had two reliable cars for qualifying,” he said.
“When you miss the Sprint, you also lose valuable information on continuous laps, which is important to understand where you can fine-tune your car.
“For instance, in this generation of cars that are so sensitive to ride heights, you actually miss key data that tells you whether you can squeeze in that final millimetre or not.
“And in this generation of cars, a millimetre can be worth significant milliseconds.
“Our focus has been on maximising the setup for qualifying with the limited information we had, and maximising the driving.
“It wasn’t easy for either Lando or Oscar, because in Q1, they only had a single lap, and then the red flag came out.
“So Q1 became very tight for both of them. It’s not ideal, but we are racers. We reset, we got through qualifying, and now we’re definitely looking forward to the race.”
Norris, speaking in the press conference after qualifying, alluded to the difficulties now faced ahead of the race due to the truncation of his Sprint Race.
“Like, I just have to crack on and do my own thing,” he told media including Motorsport Week. “I was pretty unlucky to not have a chance to race earlier.
“And, yeah, that’s not just hurt me yesterday or today, but also for the race tomorrow in terms of preparation. So, yeah, it was a difficult time.”
READ MORE – The ‘excuse’ Lando Norris avoided for missing F1 US GP pole
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