McLaren team principal Andrea Stella does not feel that the Belgian Grand Prix was a squandered opportunity to further dent Red Bull’s constructors’ championship advantage.
Andrea Stella does not believe the Belgian Grand Prix was a squandered opportunity to diminish Red Bull’s lead in the constructors’ championship.
The McLaren team principal saw the Woking squad reduce the Milton Keynes outfit’s lead to just 42 points coming into the summer break, taking nine points away at Spa-Francorchamps.
After the Miami Grand Prix in May, Red Bull led McLaren by 115 points. However, the suite of upgrades the Papaya team introduced in Florida has pushed it into championship contention.
McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have won 10 consecutive races, including a one-two at the Hungarian Grand Prix. However, due to Max Verstappen’s 10-place grid penalty for a power unit change at the following round in Belgium, Stella believes his team could have taken the lead.
“With the way the race unfolded, I think it’s still important that we gained points on Red Bull,” the 53-year-old told RacingNews365, when asked if it was a squandered chance.
“If you had told me before the race, ‘Are you gonna earn points on Red Bull?’ I’m not sure, because I expected [Max] Verstappen to come through, and if you look at last year’s race, [Sergio] Perez ended maybe 10 seconds, 15 seconds behind Verstappen for a one-two. So, we got nine points, 42 currently behind [Red Bull].”
‘Impossible’ to have ‘perfect weekend’ in F1
Verstappen was the fastest in qualifying, but with his penalty, he began in 11th place. Norris and Piastri were fourth and fifth, respectively, with Perez on the front row.
The three-time drivers’ champion was able to push his way through the pack to fourth place, ahead of Norris, who finished one spot behind. Perez, on the other hand, dropped back from second to a disappointing seventh place finish.
Meanwhile, Piastri outpaced his teammate at the start – as Norris raced wide – and pushed his way past Charles Leclerc and Perez as the Red Bull slipped back to finish second behind Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.
It could have been victory if the Australian had not missed his pit stops, colliding with McLaren’s front jack man and losing almost two seconds.
Stella, on the other hand, believes it is “impossible” to have a “perfect weekend” in F1, saying there was little further his drivers could have done.
“Yes, you can identify some cases in which if we had a perfect weekend, you could say that potentially we could have qualified one or two positions ahead – I don’t think we could beat Red Bull [in qualifying] – we didn’t have enough grip to do so,” the driver from Italy stated.
“Then [in the race], there was the tiny issue with Lando [Norris], lap one, then the little issue at the pit stop [Oscar Piastri’s second stop]. But the truth is that nobody has a perfect event; it’s simply impossible.”
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