F1 News

Stella explains why McLaren pit Norris before Piastri in Hungary

Stella explains why McLaren took the risk of the undercut

22 July at 07:00
2
  • Ben Stevens
  • Editor

McLaren have come under scrutiny in recent weeks, with multiple stratgey errors potentially costing the papaya-coloured team multiple race wins. Despite taking a 1-2 in Hungary, they have come under the microscope again, after they took the decision to pit Lando Norris before Oscar Piastri, which could have costed them victory if not for Max Verstappen's incident with Lewis Hamilton. Andrea Stella explains why they took the decision they did. 

Why did McLaren take the risk? 

McLaren's team principal Andrea Stella explained to GPblog and others after Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix why McLaren felt they had to take the risk of pitting Norris before Piastri. "We knew that by going first with Lando that could have been the situation," Stella began; "But we wouldn't have done it if we weren't sure that this would be fixed. I think today, because we are at the Hungaroring and because it was so hot, there were two variables that we really wanted to get right.

"The first one, we didn't want to pit too early because the tyres were degrading a lot and we didn't want to run out of tyres should we stop and become a problem at the end of the race. Therefore, we just wanted to delay the pit stop as much as possible. The second element is that you can have a problem at the pit stop. So you need to go safe from a pit stop point of view. Do you want to pit only when you have three seconds? Because then you know what happens, that all the pressure goes on the pit crew.

"I don't want in a race like today that the responsibility goes to the pit crew. I'd rather take the responsibility at the pit wall, secure the P1 and P2 and then we manage the situation between the pit wall and the drivers. Because we talk about the situation and we know how we go about the situation."

The Italian explained further and empathised that they didn't want a slow pitstop to cost them the victory. "I just did not want to have a situation at the pit stop where there's a problem with a nut, there's a problem with the execution, that puts us behind a Mercedes or a Ferrari.

"We have seen with Verstappen today what can happen. Verstappen would have had the tyres much fresher than the guys ahead. I think we would be talking something else if that was the case, like it happened to Verstappen. I know that for the media, I know that for watching on TV this becomes a story.

"But for us internally, this becomes part of the way we go racing and that's why we invest so much in culture, in values and in the mindset. Because we want to be able to manage this situation if we want to be in the championship with Lando, with Oscar and with McLaren."