McLaren made a significant blunder during the recent Canadian GP. Although heavy downpours were predicted beforehand, it remained completely dry throughout the main race. Nevertheless, the papayas played it safe and both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri started on intermediates. Two early pit stops later, all chances for a good result vanished. Team principal Andrea Stella tried to provide an explanation afterwards.
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Further back in the field, more teams had taken the gamble and fitted rain tires to their cars. In the midfield, however, the drivers had less to lose than Norris and Piastri, who shared the second row. Although the decision ultimately did not pay off, the reigning world champion was able to briefly take the lead with a good start; he was faster than both Mercedes cars.
Idiot
It was short-lived. After his pit stop, Norris fell back significantly, then suffered a DNF due to a technical issue. “I just had a lot more grip, it’s that simple,” he said afterwards about his start. “So it wasn’t that stupid to run on that tire. It just dried out and of course, once Mercedes got some temperature into their tires, they fought back. A fraction more rain or a few showers, and it would have looked very different. I’m glad we went for something and stuck to it,” he emphasized. “Sometimes things just don’t go the way you want – we accept that and learn from it.”
Oscar Piastri also responded disappointedly. He too fell back significantly after the early pit stop. Moreover, he collided with the side of Alex Albon during an overtaking maneuver, which earned him a ten-second time penalty. Partly because of this, he finished pointless in P11. “Unfortunately, the rain stopped when the warm-up lap started,” sighed the Australian afterwards. “It was just one of those moments where we could have looked like heroes if it had rained a bit longer, but it didn’t, so we looked like idiots. Well, that can happen.”
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Gamble in the moment
Team principal Andrea Stella was asked afterwards about McLaren’s strategy and explained the tire gamble as follows. “Everyone largely agreed with this choice,” he stated upfront. “You have to consider that the tires are fitted five minutes before the start. So in fact, we have seven minutes to choose a strategy. In our opinion, the track was slippery and it was raining,” he clarified. “The intermediates were the right tire at that moment.” However, due to the two extra warm-up laps after the Racing Bulls of Arvid Lindblad retired, the track dried quickly.
“From the pit lane, the circuit first turned dark gray, but then changed to gray – as if it was dry,” Stella sighed. “But you have to judge our decision at the moment it was made,” he emphasized. “As I said: the fact that the rain stopped almost immediately and we then had to do two extra warm-up laps punished our choice directly. But if the rain had lasted a few minutes longer and the race had started at the right time, the cars on slicks would probably have had a much harder time.”
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