(Motorsport-Total.com) – Andrea Stella defended McLaren’s strategy decisions after the Hungarian Grand Prix and emphasized that the team never considered a position swap between its two drivers at any point, despite Lando Norris’s obvious pace advantage.
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After the race, Stella was asked whether McLaren had considered swapping driver positions given Norris’s higher pace and possibly switching back later. “When you are in second place, you constantly evaluate all options,” Stella explains.
“You look at it from different perspectives. You ask yourself how you can win such a race, how to get the maximum points for the team, but also how to stay true to your own racing principles.” Until Piastri’s first pit stop, the Australian had taken the lead fairly.
McLaren wanted to stay true to its own principles
“Until the moment Oscar came into the pits, he had earned the lead fairly with his maneuver in turns 1 and 2. Therefore, he deserved the chance to fight for the win,” says Stella.
The Italian admits that Norris might have been able to overtake his teammate on track at other circuits. However, on this track, it was significantly more difficult.
“At other tracks, Lando probably would have overtaken Oscar. But here, it’s difficult. You need a very large pace advantage on this track to achieve that. That’s why we were happy to give Oscar the opportunity to fight for the win while ensuring we stayed true to our racing principles.”
Although McLaren played through various scenarios, ultimately the race went optimally from the team’s philosophy perspective. “There are always many possibilities to consider. But I think today it was a very well-executed race from the perspective of our racing principles. For that, I have to thank Oscar and Lando, because without two drivers who accept and support our style of racing, that wouldn’t be possible,” emphasizes Stella.
Hamilton forced McLaren to react
Another question concerned the timing of the pit stops. Stella made it clear that the strategy was not determined by the internal duel between the two McLaren drivers but by the threat of an undercut by Lewis Hamilton.
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“If you look at the race progression, you see that Hamilton, with his pit stop, would have been able to overtake both McLarens by undercut. That’s why we had to react. If that was the right way to win, we had to ensure that a McLaren stayed ahead of Hamilton.”
Since Piastri was leading at that time, the decision was made in favor of the Australian. “It had to be either Oscar or Lando. Oscar was leading, so we considered him the right car to bring in.”
Norris benefited from his alternative strategy
“For Lando, this opened up a different strategy. It had nothing to do with wanting to differentiate between Oscar and Lando. It was solely about preventing Ferrari from taking the lead.”
The decisive difference was ultimately Norris’s race pace. “On used tires, Lando was hardly slower than the cars on fresh tires. That’s where he won the race today,” explains Stella.
“It was a win due to his pace, and Lando had the opportunity to exploit that, but not because the team deliberately created this situation. The team just had to react to Hamilton,” the McLaren team principal emphasizes further.
With this approach, McLaren ultimately achieved the race win, with the team stating that it both reacted to the competition and stayed true to its own principles in dealing with the two drivers.
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