McLaren boss Andrea Stella has revealed that it was a “little surprising” how competitive Red Bull proved to be in race trim in Formula 1‘s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.
The Woking-based squad went into the European season having lost once across the opening six rounds, a race in Japan in which it still possessed the best package.
However, Red Bull turned the tables at Imola as Max Verstappen controlled proceedings once he seized the lead with an audacious move on Oscar Piastri at the start.
Unlike in the previous race in Miami, Verstappen was able to manage a gap to Piastri, leading McLaren to commit to a two-stop with the Australian as early as Lap 13.
With Lando Norris in the second McLaren spending the initial stages tucked up behind George Russell, Verstappen appeared on course to cruise to an untroubled win.
And even when a late Safety Car extinguished his substantial advantage over the McLaren duo, Verstappen aced the restart to cross the line with six seconds in hand.
But while he professed that McLaren were braced for a greater challenge around Imola, Stella has expressed that Red Bull’s superior pace in the race was unexpected.
“After coming from a race like Miami, in which our pace was very strong, we knew that because of the track layout and the slightly different ambient conditions, this race would have been just more balanced from a race pace point of view,” Stella explained to media including Motorsport Week.
“We knew that it would have been very balanced in qualifying like already we have seen in Saudi, in Japan, in these kind of fast-flowing circuits.
“But I have to say today we were a little surprised, I think I have to be honest here, by the pace of Red Bull which was very competitive.
“Well done to Max, well done to Red Bull, for being able to pull off this kind of performance, which meant that the race was very much decided by the episode, or just a swap of position between Oscar and Max in corner one.
“After that we tried to chase him but effectively we didn’t have enough race pace today to be able to beat Max [after] taking the lead after lap one.”
Why McLaren couldn’t replicate Miami dominance
McLaren had been backed to dominate at Imola in an identical manner to how it had crushed the competition in Miami with a 37-second gap to its closest challenger.
However, Stella pinpointed how Red Bull’s updates, coupled with the circuit’s emphasis on high-speed cornering, mitigated McLaren’s advantage on tyre management.
“We will have to look at the data, we will have to look at the behaviour of the tyres and their thermal regime,” the Italian elucidated.
“I think what’s happening today is a combination of Red Bull, I think they have improved. They’ve been developing their car over the last couple of races and I think they have taken a step forward.
“And then if we look at the speed of the corners and we compare with the speed in Miami, it’s a completely different regime. The car operates in a completely different part of the aerodynamic maps.
“And I think we know that our car is strong in track layouts like Miami or Bahrain or China, but when it comes to high-speed corners like we have here in Imola, I don’t think we enjoy any particular advantage. So the track layout, the progress of Red Bull, I think they are the two factors that meant that we didn’t have much advantage today.”
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