McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has shared his reflections on the United States Grand Prix after the team narrowly missed out on a podium finish at the Circuit of The Americas. Stella evaluated the performance of their MCL38 machine and the strategic decisions made during the race.
Assessing Car Competitiveness and Strategy
Stella noted that managing pace during the grand prix felt more straightforward compared to the intense demands of qualifying. He stated, “It gets a little bit easier in the race, because you don’t push as much as you do in Qualifying. You necessarily leave a little bit of margin, and the car was, I think, today as competitive as the Ferraris and Red Bull, while Kimi Antonelli seemed to be a step ahead of everyone else.”
Lando Norris successfully climbed to second place by committing to a one-stop strategy. In contrast, rivals Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen, and Lewis Hamilton opted for a two-stop strategy, enabling them to hunt down and overtake the McLaren driver in the closing stages of the race.
Norris expressed the view that second was the maximum result achievable under the circumstances. Meanwhile, teammate Oscar Piastri crossed the finish line in seventh position after successfully defending his place against Mercedes driver George Russell.
Awaiting Safety Car and Tyre Degradation
Discussing the tactical gamble behind the single-stop approach, Stella explained that the team was hoping for a neutralisation that never materialised. “For the one-stop, this gives you the possibility to take advantage of a Safety Car, which didn’t come,” said Stella.
He added humorously regarding their luck, “We are still waiting a compensation for what happened in Madrid! It will come, and we also attempted to see what’s left in the hard tyres, but honestly, we knew that it was very, very unlikely that we could have kept Verstappen and, in particular, Leclerc behind.”
Addressing the battle with the seven-time world champion, Stella concluded, “With Hamilton, we thought it was more dependent on the final tail of the hard tyres.”
