Stella sees pain point for McLaren: 'That's been very costly'
F1 News
There's no doubt McLaren have improved significantly again this season, as they are now regular contenders to win Grands Prix. However, there's an argument to suggest that they haven't taken as much advantage as they should've done. McLaren still want to hunt down Red Bull, and team boss Andrea Stella has highlighted one key area to improve upon in the summer break.
Even when Red Bull were not winning Grands Prix, they were the strongest in other departments. They scooped up the Fastest Pitstop Awards, world records tumbled, and they successfully tried some ridiculous pitstop challenges. That all meant one thing: when they became competitive, they had another advantage.
McLaren haven't been bad at pitstops themselves. In fact, there was a place in the top three in the pit stop championship last year. But to take the next step and fight for Formula 1 World Championships, you need to be the best in every department. At the Belgian Grand Prix, another potential win slipped through their fingers.
What do McLaren need to work on in Formula 1?
In the Belgian Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri missed his marks and hit his jackman during a routine pitstop. The whole team had to adjust and, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, only lost two seconds. But it turned out those were two key seconds at the end of the race. Whilst Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were battling each other at the front, Piastri made gains from P3. In the end, he finished around 1.2 seconds shy of Russell.
Of course, two overtakes would've needed to have been made, but it's a chance Stella doesn't want to see disappear again. "He [Piastri] could have also been in contention to attack. I think this one and a half, two second loss at the pit stop ultimately proved to be relatively costly," Stella told GPblog and others in the paddock.
"And even because then he would have been behind Leclerc earlier with fresher tyres, which means you could have finalised the overtaking more easily. So, a bit of a cascade. We do have to work with drivers [for] the hot moments. Just don't overcook it at the pitstop position because it can be very costly. I think we had something similar in Silverstone as well," Stella concluded.
McLaren go into the summer break with a 42 point deficit to Red Bull Racing. There are ten races remaining, so there are plenty of chances for McLaren.