Team principal Andrea Stella expressed pride in how McLaren showed strength in adversity after what he described as an “unnecessary” move from Max Verstappen at the start of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Verstappen tried to overtake Oscar Piastri on the inside of Turn 1 but understeered into the McLaren and spun the Australian around, leaving him at the back of the field. That meant what had been a one-two starting order for McLaren suddenly became a race that was dependent on Lando Norris winning to secure the constructors’ championship, and he duly did so in what a proud Stella described as his team rising to the occasion.
“The first thought I had after checking corner one is that it felt unnecessary,” Stella said. “When you have teams fighting for the championship, it’s the pinnacle — it’s the time to harvest the efforts of a season — that felt a little unnecessary.
“Sometimes adversities give you the opportunity to show your strengths and I think that’s exactly what happened. First of all because Oscar never gave up and he came back to scoring a point that could have been very important. If not the two points that could have been decisive in case of a swap between Carlos and Lando.
“Lando showed his strengths, delivering a perfect weekend and a perfect race when all the pressure was on him and he stayed very calm on the radio. He considered some difficult options that we gave him like when we said would you pit in case of safety car or not for a new set. So, I think we saw Lando at his best and his best is just incredibly competitive. I can’t wait to see Lando and Oscar in the future with a competitive car right from race one.
“For me if anything the opportunity to show the strengths was in the last pit stop. The whole season was in the last pit stop. A problem at the pit stop and we could have lost the position to Carlos and we could have lost the championship. The guys delivered what I think is one of the best pit stops of the season, confirming the trajectory which was not only car performance but was the overall maturity, mentality, emotional resilience of the entire team.
“So, all this somehow was given the opportunity to be shown thanks to the accident in corner one. But hopefully in the future we don’t need adversities — we can just have a faster car and just be safer and not being in a decisive race at the last races of the season.”
Lando Norris salutes his team on the pit wall at the end of the Abu Dhabi GP. Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
The McLaren team principal admits he was nervous in the closing stages knowing that a safety car could have left Norris under threat from second-placed Sainz, which is why there was so much emphasis also placed on Piastri’s recovery through the field.
“We were aware and that’s why we were pushing very hard with Oscar to make sure that we could get P9 because the two points would have been fundamental.
“We were definitely nervous because not only the back markers were a problem but the safety car would have been a problem because Carlos could have done the opposite of what we do. So, if we don’t pit, he could have gone on new tires and it would have been a problem. If we had pitted, he would have taken the lead and we should have overtaken him.
“So, we were definitely nervous because of this happening, not so much about the back markers. It is expected that you lose a bit of grip behind the back markers but this is not a track where there’s a lot of space to overtake back markers.
“At that stage Lando had built a good gap to Carlos — which was good to see by the way, because in the first stint I don’t think there was much to pick in terms of performance between Ferrari and McLaren. But on the harder compounds, as has often happened this season, Lando was the quickest car on track and this meant that we had a safety buffer.”
