McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has explained the reasons behind his team’s strategic error at the Qatar Grand Prix and promised to learn from the mistake.
The decision not to pit Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris during a safety car period in Qatar ultimately opened the door for Max Verstappen to win Sunday’s race, depriving Piastri of a crucial victory in the fight for the championship.
The strategic error could have much wider implications for McLaren, as Verstappen’s victory put him ahead of Piastri in the drivers’ standings and just 12 points behind championship leader Norris with one race to go.
Stella explained that McLaren missed the opportunity to bring their cars in on lap 7, as they were worried that Piastri, who finished second, and Norris, who finished fourth, would get stuck in traffic if rival teams chose to stay out.
However, all the other cars in the race pitted during the safety car period, which meant that McLaren was leading when the race resumed, but was one pit stop behind its rivals, including Verstappen.
Added: “Everyone pitted, and this made our decision to stay out incorrect from the point of view of the race result. As I say, because Verstappen was fast, and also because the tire degradation was low, ultimately, this decision was significantly penalizing because clearly Oscar was in control of the race and deserved to win it, and we also lost the podium.” When asked why McLaren’s race reading was so wrong, Stella said the team would have to review their decision and learn from it.Obviously, we did it for a reason and the reason was that we didn’t want to end up in traffic after the pit stop, but obviously all the other cars and teams had a different opinion regarding a safety car on lap 7.
Andrea Stella
He continued by saying: “We will have to evaluate some factors such as, for example, if there was a certain bias in the way we were thinking that led us as a group to think that not all cars would necessarily have entered the pits. Sometimes there are some objective reasons and sometimes there may be some biases in the way you think. We will have to go through the review in a very exhaustive way, but the important thing is that we do it as usual in a way that is constructive, analytical”.I think in terms of the error of judgment, it’s something we’ll have to review, discussing internally.
Andrea Stella
A theory as to why McLaren chose not to pit on lap 7 was that Norris, who was third at the time of the safety car, would lose time queuing behind Piastri in the pit box. Stella explained: “Well, certainly for Lando there was the additional consideration, as you say, of losing additional time due to the double pit stop.” Concluded: “So it was under consideration, but it wasn’t the main reason for not stopping both cars. We thought the traffic might have been a problem for both cars, and as I said before, that wasn’t actually the correct interpretation of the situation at that moment that we should have had.”Races are tough, races can give you tough lessons, but this is the story of champions. This is just the story of Formula 1, this is the true nature of racing. We are disappointed, but as soon as we start the review, we will be even more determined to learn from our lessons, adapt and be stronger as a team.
Andrea Stella
