{"id":267643,"date":"2026-05-12T05:47:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T05:47:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/267643\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T05:47:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T05:47:32","slug":"mclaren-cost-themselves-miami-gp-win-with-hesitant-strategy-call-says-jolyon-palmer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/267643\/","title":{"rendered":"McLaren \u201ccost themselves\u201d Miami GP win with “hesitant” strategy call, says Jolyon Palmer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Formula 1 driver Jolyon Palmer<\/a> has argued that Mercedes<\/a> won the Miami Grand Prix with Kimi Antonelli because they were proactive when McLaren<\/a> hesitated.<\/p>\n

McLaren\u2019s Lando Norris<\/a> was leading the race at the Hard Rock Stadium with Antonelli in second, but he lost the lead when Mercedes successfully pulled off an undercut. The Brackley outfit initiated the strategy by pitting Antonelli for fresh tyres, with the Italian immediately putting in a blistering out-lap. When\u00a0McLaren pitted on the next lap, the damage had already been done.<\/p>\n

\u201cAntonelli had the winning strategy and it was simple. It was just an undercut,\u201d Palmer told F1 TV in the post-race show. \u201cIt was one lap, pitting earlier than the McLaren. Lando would be fuming because you’re out there, you’re just driving. You’re monotonously ticking through the laps, being consistent, being quick, making sure the guy behind is one-and-a-half, two seconds back out of range.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen that guy just pits one lap sooner, puts on fresh tyres, goes quicker, you’re helpless as a driver. The pit crew did a good job. 2.2 seconds, I think, was Norris’s stop. So, it was as good as it could have been, but they were just caught out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey weren’t proactive and they cost themselves the race win. But on the flip side, Mercedes were proactive and they won the race because it wasn’t straightforward because of the rain.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lando <\/p>\n

Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes<\/p>\n

Photo by: Ryan Pierse \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

McLaren seemed to be holding out for the expected rain, but it never came.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe weather chatter was kind of laughable at times,\u201d Palmer continued. \u201cBut if you take the average of the communication, I think McLaren were more convinced that the rain was going to be a factor than other teams. And that’s why when Mercedes pitted George, it was very early. And I think McLaren, they stayed out with Oscar, didn’t they? At that point, they stayed out with Lando, but Oscar was in the fight with George and Charles. And I think they were thinking, \u2018Hang on, you guys are really setting yourself out for this isn’t going to rain. It might still rain.\u2019 And that would have really scuppered anyone that pitted early.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically the weather forecast didn’t help McLaren. They sort of dithered. They weren’t sure. They were hesitant to pit early. But by the time Kimi pitted, it seemed more clear that the weather was just passing and it wasn’t going to hit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd ultimately a couple more tenths on the car would allow them to escape a bad decision. But they had the pace in the car.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Formula 1 driver Jolyon Palmer has argued that Mercedes won the Miami Grand Prix with Kimi Antonelli…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[110073,31514,63812,115069,123,31515,125,124,115070,31513],"class_list":["post-267643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-f1-miami-grand-prix-2026","tag-formula-1","tag-mclaren","tag-mclaren-u201ccost-themselvesu201d-miami-gp-win-with-hesitant-strategy-call","tag-miami","tag-miami-gp","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-says-jolyon-palmer","tag-trendingteam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}