McLaren boss Andrea Stella has claimed the side’s wrong decision not to double stack when the rain intensified in Formula 1’s British Grand Prix was down to “greed”.
McLaren were sitting one and two at Silverstone as Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri utilised the MCL38 coming alive in damp conditions to pass the Mercedes drivers.
However, the Woking-based squad squandered that advantage as Piastri lost an abundance of time when he was left circulating on track when the shower increased.
The Australian’s stellar pace at that stage ended up his undoing as being tucked up behind Norris prompted McLaren to opt against pitting both cars on the same lap.
The call would be an incorrect one as conditions deteriorated and Piastri ended up losing so much time tiptoeing on slicks that Norris nearly caught him on an outlap.
With Piastri coming home 12 seconds behind winner Lewis Hamilton in fourth as the track dried in the closing stages, Stella has conceded McLaren made a mistake.
Asked how fair it was to suggest that Piastri should have pushed harder to pit a lap earlier, Stella replied: “Very fair. Not only should he have pushed but we should have pushed harder for the double stack because by delaying Oscar’s stop by one lap we lost much more time than the time we would have lost in a double stack pit stop.
“So in hindsight that was the right thing to do, stop both cars at the same time and we take the learning from this experience and we will do better next time.”
Stella has acknowledged McLaren should have accepted that Piastri was going to lose out regardless and shouldn’t have attempted to minimise that with a bold call.
“I think we were a little greedy that we didn’t want to accept that we would have lost time with the double-stack,” he explained.
“But sometimes you just have to be patient and accept that you’re gonna lose time but just do the right thing rather than hoping that one lap more is not gonna cost that much.
“Especially when the rain was pretty steady so it’s not like he’s gonna face easier conditions staying out one more lap. Yeah, so that’s it.
“I think Oscar would have been in a really strong position today, like at least as strong as Lando in terms of opportunities to win the race.”
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