McLaren boss Andrea Stella says that the team still has “some work to do” but that its recent “near misses” should be seen as a positive as the team is now consistently fighting at the front.
The run of races in which McLaren appeared to squander a shot at victory continued at Silverstone last weekend, where the cars ran one-two in the wet part of the race, but eventually finished third and fourth.
Oscar Piastri slipped out of contention when he was left out for an extra lap and not double-stacked with Lando Norris for the switch to intermediates as the rain intensified.
In the latter stages, having lost the lead with a slow stop for slicks, Norris lost a chance to challenge leader Lewis Hamilton. He tumbled from second to third when he switched from intermediates to soft tyres rather than the preferable mediums.
McLaren’s consistent fight for wins is possible, says Stella
Stella insisted that while mistakes were made, the fact that the cars were in the fight for victory was a positive.
“There’s this narrative around that McLaren has the best car,” he said when asked by this writer about the Silverstone race.
“I think we make good use of the car. So I would like to emphasise the good work of the people that prepare the car. We come to practice sessions, and the car performs well, and we build well through the weekend.
“But we saw today that not necessarily we have the fastest car. Because in the first stint when things were pretty regular, Mercedes, they were going. So I think it’s part of the positives.
“I think the team are working very well. When you race for the front positions, it just becomes much more visible when you still have some work to do.”
Stella insisted that missed opportunities should be seen as part of the building process, especially given that in the first part of last season, the team was still struggling.
“The near misses are, first of all, a point of view of good news, right?” said Stella. “We didn’t have these kind of near misses until 12 months ago. And first of all, we need to look at the positives.
“We need to look at the fact that the team is in condition to be frustrated today. Because we are P3 on the podium, with the other driver P4, and once again, the team that scored more points.
“So if we don’t start from the positives from the building side, we are going to be the ones that build and destroy, build and destroy, and we’ll stay always at the same level. So this is the responsibility for everyone.”
Stella: Everyone at McLaren must improve
Stella insisted that everyone in the team plays a role in areas such as improving the decision-making process.
“While Lando and Oscar don’t have responsibility in some of the calls that today we call missed opportunities, we all, drivers included, have the responsibility to keep building.
“And when you have days in which you have a missed opportunity, it’s the best opportunity to keep building. Because we are racing against the teams that have won championships and championships, and they are pretty stable in terms of the people that are there.
“They are even familiar with this kind of racing at the top, in changeable conditions and so on. From this point of view, we have, I think, more of an under-construction site, and we take these near misses. The frustration will go very rapidly, but the opportunity will come soon. So we need to be ready.”
Stella l insisted that everyone in the team has to keep learning from mistakes.
“You review your decisions – you see how the decision was made,” he said. “You see what information we brought to the table. Was this information used in the best possible way, or not? What were the contributions from the various people? That’s the way you manage complex processes.
“And when I say complex, it’s not only complex because it’s a difficult decision. But because it involves many people. And you need to make sure as well that when you review that, it’s good learning for everyone involved.
“It wouldn’t help very much that I learn something, the race engineer learns something, if we don’t learn all this as a group. So I think the responsibility of the people is we go after this like we always do. Review, learn, and we go again.”
