McLaren boss Andrea Stella admitted the team ‘misjudged’ its strategy in the Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix and said an internal review will be carried out to dissect its decision not to pit either driver under the safety car.
McLaren was the team to beat around Losail, with Oscar Piastri take sprint pole and victory, and starting Sunday’s grand prix on pole ahead of team-mate and title rival Lando Norris on the front row.
However, its domination started coming undone early in the race when Max Verstappen passed Norris into the first corner. The team’s chance of picking up a 204th grand prix win then slipped through its fingers during an early safety car period following contact between Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly.
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By the end of lap 7, almost every other car on the grid had stopped for new tyres, while Piastri and Norris stayed out for McLaren. Due to Pirelli’s 25-lap tyre mandate, this forced most drivers to stop again on lap 32, while the McLaren pair would have “flexibly” for their strategy – as Will Joseph, Norris’ race engineer, put it over team radio.
Track position proved to be more advantageous than flexibility, and Verstappen ultimately won the race by almost eight seconds – which was about the same as the difference in time lost during a pitstop under the safety car versus one in normal racing conditions.
In order to unpick its mistakes, team principal Stella said McLaren will now carry out an internal review into its race weekend – one that he hopes will make the side “stronger” ahead of the Abu Dhabi finale next weekend.
“I think in terms of the misjudgement, [it] is something that we will have to review, discussing internally,” he explained.
Oscar Piastri had to settle for second place in Qatar
Photo by: Dom Gibbons / LAT Images via Getty Images
“We’ll have to assess some factors, like for instance whether there was a certain bias in the way we were thinking that led us as a group to think that not all cars necessarily would have pitted.
“We will have to go through the review in a very thorough way, but what’s important is that we do it as usual in a way that is constructive, is analytical.”
The review, he explained, would be similar to the one carried out by the team following the Las Vegas GP – where both drivers were disqualified from the result due to excess plank wear.
This process, Stella says, highlighted the “no-blame culture” at McLaren and set the team up for its strong start to the weekend in Qatar.
“We are disappointed,” Stella said. “But, if anything, as soon as we start the review, we will get even more determined to learn our lessons, adapt and be stronger as a team and make sure that this phenomenal, beautiful opportunity that we have to compete for the drivers’ championship and be the ones that actually stop Verstappen’s dominance in this period of Formula 1.
“We want to face it at the best of ourselves. I’m looking forward to the next race and I’m looking forward to seeing a strong reaction from our team.”
Of course, McLaren’s task of ending Verstappen’s reign would be much simpler if it didn’t keep making the kind of mistakes that warranted internal reviews. After a dominant start to the season, McLaren’s form has been tarnished by errors from both the team and its drivers.
Oscar Piastri, McLaren
Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / LAT Images via Getty Images
From Norris’ mistake in Canada where he crashed with his team-mate and the pair’s collision in the US Grand Prix sprint, to its double-disqualification in Las Vegas, McLaren’s season has been far from faultless. When asked about these errors in Qatar, Stella shrugged them off as simply the “various phases” teams go through over the course of a season.
“In a season, you can have various phases,” he explained. “I think we have seen this with the drivers. We have seen this in terms of momentum of the various teams. In a way, even in terms of execution, you may have an accumulation of issues just in a given period, which makes it look like, oh, what’s happening now?
“In reality, I think there are no specific reasons. The issue we had in Vegas is very, very different to the issue we have here. I don’t think there’s any specific reason. It’s just a reminder that in racing, you have to be in control of all the possible details.
“Rather than a reason why issues are happening in a moment in time, I think it’s the fact that the competition is very tight, the stake is very big, and we are exposed as a team. It doesn’t change what we have to do. We just have to make sure that we execute perfect weekends.”
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– The Autosport.com Team