{"id":695945,"date":"2026-05-26T15:43:03","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T15:43:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/695945\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T15:43:03","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T15:43:03","slug":"max-verstappen-laughs-at-mclarens-failed-strategy-gamble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/695945\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen laughs at McLaren’s failed strategy gamble"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen<\/a> poked fun at McLaren<\/a>\u2019s decision to start the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix on the intermediate compound as that strategic call immediately backfired.<\/p>\n

The reigning championship-winning squad was the only\u00a0frontrunner to start Sunday\u2019s race on a non-slick tyre with the Montreal surface being slippery under cloudy conditions leading into it.<\/p>\n

But much to McLaren\u2019s dismay the track actually began to dry out, and on the formation lap the team started to realise it had made a costly error.<\/p>\n

So Oscar Piastri<\/a>, who started fourth, pitted for mediums at the end of lap one, with team-mate Lando Norris<\/a> switching the following tour despite launching from third to first at lights out.<\/p>\n

That was largely down to the Mercedes<\/a> cars, which lined up 1-2, being slow at race starts this year though, so it was only a matter of time before Norris dropped down had he not pitted.<\/p>\n

McLaren\u2019s strategy was therefore put to the drivers after the grand prix and Verstappen made a joke of the situation, laughing: \u201cThat was a great call. I was like, \u2018thank you\u2019!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Oscar <\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri, McLaren<\/p>\n

Photo by: Cristobal Herrera-Ulashkevich \/ via Getty Images<\/p>\n

It eventually led to a horrible non-score for the Woking outfit, as Norris retired with a gearbox problem while Piastri took 11th after a 10s penalty for colliding into Alex Albon<\/a> at the hairpin during his desperate recovery drive.<\/p>\n

So Verstappen took his first podium of 2026 with third behind Mercedes victor Kimi Antonelli, whose team-mate George Russell<\/a> retired from the lead, and runner-up Lewis Hamilton<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a little bit surprised with being on the podium,\u201d said Verstappen. \u201cBut you also have to look at it with George retiring, McLaren making a mess of the strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The strategic decision made McLaren look \u201clike idiots\u201d according to Piastri, with it also leaving other drivers such as championship leader Antonelli perplexed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was not [an] easy situation because it started to drizzle a little bit harder,\u201d said the Italian.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could see it was starting to get a little bit wet but we knew, at least we were quite confident, that it wouldn\u2019t have lasted that long and that you could survive.<\/p>\n

\"Lewis <\/p>\n

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes<\/p>\n

Photo by: Peter Fox \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cSo obviously went for slicks and of course I was surprised to see the McLarens on inters, especially because I think they were the only ones. So it was a massive gamble and if it would have started raining it was very good for them, but it didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

McLaren wasn\u2019t the only team to do it though, as the lower half also saw Audi<\/a>, Williams<\/a> and Cadillac all go for inters, but Verstappen\u2019s Red Bull team was never tempted by the option.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was straightforward for us,\u201d said Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies. \u201cBut I’m not going to play that card. After the race, it’s always easy. It was straightforward for us. Was it comfortable? No.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody knows if the rain is going to intensify and we are all going to look stupid. Or if not, we felt that for the conditions we had, which is the best thing you can do at that moment, we felt that for the conditions we had at that moment, it was the right thing to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was going to happen in the next five, 10, 15 minutes is in the control of nobody and one could look very bright or less so.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Ronald Vording<\/p>\n

Photos from Canadian GP – Sunday<\/p>\n

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\"Lando<\/p>\n


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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen poked fun at McLaren\u2019s decision to start the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix on the intermediate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,318989,817,330394,813,816,825,339384,913,85],"class_list":["post-695945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-canadian-gp","tag-f1","tag-f1-canadian-grand-prix","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-max-verstappen","tag-max-verstappen-laughs-at-mclarens-failed-strategy-gamble","tag-mclaren","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}