McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has explained the reasons behind his team’s strategy blunder at the Qatar Grand Prix and promised to learn lessons from the mistake.
A decision not to pit Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris under a safety car period in Qatar ultimately left the door open for Max Verstappen to win Sunday’s race while depriving Piastri of a crucial victory in the championship fight.
The strategy error could have much wider implications for McLaren as Verstappen’s victory saw him move ahead of Piastri in the drivers’ standings and just 12 points behind championship leader Norris with one race left to run.
Stella said McLaren passed up the opportunity to pit its cars on Lap 7 as it was worried Piastri, who went on to finish second, and Norris, who finished fourth, would get stuck in traffic if rival teams opted to stay out.
As it transpired, all the other cars in the race pitted during the safety car period, meaning McLaren held the lead when racing resumed but were one pit stop behind its rivals, including Verstappen.
“Effectively, we conceded one pit stop to a rival that was fast today,” Stella said. “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 in relation to a safety car at Lap 7.
“Everyone pitted, and this made our staying out ultimately be incorrect from a race outcome point of view. Like I say, because Verstappen was fast, and also because the tyre degradation was low, ultimately this decision was significantly penalising because clearly Oscar was in control of the race and deserved to win it, and we lost the podium as well.”
Asked why McLaren’s reading of the race was so wrong, Stella said the team would have to review its decision and learn lessons.
“I think in terms of the misjudgment it is something that we will have to review, discussing internally,” he added.
“We will have to assess some factors like, for instance, whether there was a certain bias in the way we were thinking that led us as a group to think that not all cars necessarily would have pitted. There are sometimes 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 thorough way, but what’s important is that we do it as usual in a way that is constructive, is analytical.
“Racing is tough, racing may give you tough lessons, but this is the history of champions. This is just the history of Formula 1, this is the true nature of racing. We are disappointed, but if anything as soon as we start the review we will get even more determined to learn from our lessons, adapt and be stronger as a team.”
One theory for why McLaren chose not to pit on Lap 7 was that Norris, who was running third at the time of the safety car, would lose out by queuing behind Piastri in the pit box.
“Well, certainly for Lando there was the extra consideration, as you say, of losing additional time because of the double-stacked pit stop,” Stella explained.
“So it was in the consideration, but it wasn’t the main reason not to stop both cars. We thought that traffic could have been a problem for both cars, and like I said before, in reality that was not the right interpretation of the situation at the time that we should have had.”
McLaren boss Zak Brown summed up his thoughts in a social media post after the race. “No excuses, we got it wrong today and take full responsibility as we could have won that race with both drivers on the podium,” he said.
“Both drivers deserved more. Oscar was dominant all weekend. Time to debrief, reset, and come back stronger in Abu Dhabi.”
