McLaren boss Andrea Stella says the team could have been on pole at Silverstone had Lando Norris delivered an optimum final lap. However, Norris’s final run at the end of Q3 was a little scrappy and culminated with a mistake. This left Mercedes drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton free to secure the front row.
Stella admitted that Norris’s crucial last lap hadn’t gone to plan.
“I think we were, from a potential point of view, in condition to score a pole position today,” said Stella.
“But when it came to the final set in Q3, we didn’t put it together. In fairness, conditions were a bit tricky, especially in the first sector, where everyone at different stages experienced some problems.
“Definitely Lando on the final set and oversteering problems in Turn 3 and 4. But then he was actually gaining quite a lot of time, and we were up in terms of the previous attempt with the second set. And then there was a little issue at Becketts, and that’s where we aborted the lap.”
Stella: Mercedes pace is no surprise
Stella says he was not surprised by the Mercedes front row, given the team’s recent pace.
“I’m not surprised at the Mercedes performance. Because they’ve been very competitive, especially on a single lap, for many events now,” he said.
“So, not surprised, and we have to say and recognise that today, they’ve done a good job in capitalising on their performance.
“Often in the past, they had not been able to do so. Even if they had shown competitive lap times in practice. But today, they were able to do so. So well done to Mercedes, P1/P2.”
Stella confirmed that the team had added downforce to the car in anticipation of wet weather: “We are still in a good position for the race tomorrow. It will be potentially affected by the weather. So many variables will be at play.
“And the fact that there are these variables is also one of the reasons why you will have seen everyone playing with downforce levels.
“And ultimately, at the end, we went for a solution that was slightly more than yesterday. Because we saw that this morning on intermediate tyres, it was pretty slippery, so we wanted to be in a good position for qualifying, which we expected to be wet. Actually, it was less wet than we expected.”
McLaren prepared for wet conditions
Intriguingly, Stella suggested Mercedes’ pace was related more to optimising set-up, rather than the W15 being better than rivals at building tyre temperature.
“I don’t think that the strong performance that Mercedes had today has much to do with tyre temperature,” he said.
“Because here in Silverstone, you can warm up in the ou lap because you have high-speed corners, then you do corners one and two. These two corners put a lot of energy into the tyres.
“And also we can see that Mercedes are very quick, also in the final sector, where the tyres are already hot and good for everyone. I think they genuinely have a competitive car, which works well across the entire speed range. And I think they have done a good job of improving their car methodically.
“I think once they’ve understood what to do with the car, we have seen pretty much at every race that they took upgrades. And normally, when you do this, it means that you sort of fine-tune around the direction that you think works.
“So I think this was more than the tyre temperature today. And for tomorrow, we will see which kind of regime. If it’s a regime in which there will be a decent amount of tyre degradation, then we think we are in a good place because our car seems to be relatively gentle on tyres.
“But traditionally here the degradation is not as high as Barcelona or as high as Austria. So I expect that in the race, there won’t be the advantage we had in these last two events.”
McLaren take responsibility for Piastri difficulties
Stella also admitted that the team could have done a better job in the timing of Oscar Piastri’s final run. The Australian qualified fifth after getting caught up with Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz on his outlap.
“It’s a shame that Oscar found himself at the end of the qualifying session around Fernando and Carlos,” he said when asked about Piastri’s session.
“And the three cars needed to fight for position. To be able to cross the line before the chequered flag and be in a good gap to the car ahead.
“He also was overtaken in the out-lap by both Fernando and Carlos. And this put him under quite a lot of pressure, and then he started the lap too close to Carlos. And when you are so close, basically, you lose too much downforce. It’s very difficult to go faster than a lap in which you have a better gap to the car ahead.
“So this is something that, in fairness, the team should take responsibility for, which is what I’m doing now – because we put Oscar in a tricky position.
“It’s tricky for everyone because you will have seen that everyone waits, and then the cars leave the garage. And then, basically, you are at the mercy of the car ahead. Because you just have to wait in the queue.
“But obviously, there are better ways to make sure that you don’t find yourself at the end of this queue.”
