Lando Norris lamented a McLaren MCL39 that was “too difficult” to drive during Sprint Qualifying for the Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix.

Allcomers expected Norris to run to Sprint pole at the Shanghai International Circuit, despite the McLaren driver warning on Thursday that Ferrari could be resurgent.

Those comments came among a notion the MCL39 was a car that has ultimate potential but can bite and that’s exactly how Sprint Qualifying played out.

Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton romped away to Sprint Pole with a lap record while Norris slid to sixth thanks to two errors.

On his first SQ3 run, Norris had a moment coming onto the back straight, costing him vital speed and six-tenths in the final sector to team-mate Oscar Piastri.

In his final run, locking up into Turn 14 forced Norris to abort the lap and he was adamant once out of the car that an improvement is needed.

“We just struggled a bit more now, just not quick enough simply, I struggled a lot with the car,” Norris said.

“So, yeah, just our difficulties that we’ve been struggling with showed a lot more today.

“Nothing more than that, honestly, just too many mistakes, but it’s just too difficult of a car to drive.”

Wind exposed McLaren’s weaknesses

Norris added that windy conditions helped expose McLaren’s weaknesses, akin to the findings he discovered during pre-season testing in Bahrain.

“I think just throughout the day we’ve been struggling a bit with the front locking and struggling a lot in the last corner with all the tailwinds, he said. 

“Kind of a lot more in line with Bahrain, so just a lot windier when the wind’s blowing, then we struggle a lot more.

“Both myself and Oscar struggled more, clearly me more than him.

“Just pushing a bit hard to try and make up for not quite being quick enough.”

Asked whether McLaren can make improvements for the remainder of the weekend, Norris acknowledged that it’s up to him, rather than the team to turn his Chinese GP around.

“That’s more me rather than the car,” he said. 

“I can’t make the car perfect, but, this was me just trying to, again, like I said, just push a bit too much. 

“I think the car’s still good and in a good window, maybe not good enough for pole, but, yeah, we can definitely go forward.”

READ MORE – Lando Norris: McLaren MCL39 made it difficult to dominate F1 Australian GP qualifying

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McLaren‘s Lando Norris said Ferrari must have been “shocked” by its pace deficit in the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix.

Ferrari posed a genuine threat to McLaren throughout practice at the Albert Park Circuit with Charles Leclerc even topping FP2.

However, come the top-10 shootout in qualifying, any competitiveness Ferrari had towards McLaren evaporated as Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were resigned to the fourth row, seven-tenths adrift of the papaya front row lockout.

In the race, Ferrari’s fortunes didn’t improve and a lack of outright pace and strategy miscues saw the Scuderia duo finish eighth and 10th respectively.

Norris is adamant that McLaren won’t enjoy a similar advantage over Ferrari this weekend in China, expecting the Italian squad to have fared far better in Melbourne.

“The gap in qualifying surprised us a bit,” Norris said on Thursday.

“Our goal was to be on pole, and we expected to be quickest, but we also expected Ferrari to be a good chunk quicker than they were. 

“In the end, they were what—seven, eight tenths off? They’re not that far off by any means. 

“If you looked at FP1, FP2, FP3, their pace never looked that far behind. All of Ferrari’s race runs on Friday were a lot closer to us than anyone else. 

“In fact, I think Ferrari’s race pace on Friday was maybe even better than ours. So we were surprised. 

“I’m sure they seemed a bit shocked as well by why they were so far off in the race. 

“But it just shows how difficult it is to predict. One weekend, everything is going well, and the next, it can turn upside down.”

McLaren driver line-up an ‘advantage’ – Norris

Norris acknowledged that race by race and even stint by stint, things can change very quickly.

“You saw how quick Max was at the end of the race,” Norris exclaimed, citing the moment damp conditions played into the Red Bull driver’s hands.

“Even at the start, in the first five to seven laps, and then again in the last five to seven laps, Max was just as quick as us.”

However, when the conditions dried and managing tyre degradation became key, Norris highlighted that his and Oscar Piastri’s know-how proved to be a big advantage.

“But in that middle period of the race, when you have to understand the tyres and know how much to push, we seemed very strong,” he said. 

“That’s when you need a well-balanced car in drying conditions so the tyre degradation happens evenly, rather than the front wearing out more than the rear or vice versa. 

“Also, there’s a good amount that Oscar and I have learned from each other about how to drive the car efficiently. 

“That’s an advantage—not every team has two teammates who can really rely on each other and push each other forward. 

“It’s something we’ve worked on at McLaren, and I think it’s paying off.”

Ferrari meanwhile, although boasting a strong driver line-up, is working hard to bring Hamilton up to speed, as he seeks to tune his massive talent to his new surroundings.

After three seasons as team-mates, Norris and Piastri are singing from the same hymn sheet.

READ MORE – Lando Norris predicts slow start for Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari

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Lando Norris has claimed McLaren would have looked like “complete idiots” had it not used team orders to prevent an incident in the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix.

McLaren was dominating proceedings in a rain-hit season-opening race at the Albert Park Circuit when the team told Oscar Piastri to maintain position behind Norris.

The Woking-based squad’s intervention went against the stance that the two would be authorised to race one another amid the mutual desire to land the Drivers’ title.

However, McLaren boss Andrea Stella revealed post-race that concern over navigating lapped cars ahead with more rain on the horizon prompted the team to step in.

Norris, who went on to win the race as a spin consigned Piastri to ninth, disclosed that he was unaware that his team-mate had been instructed to remain behind him.

The Briton was adamant McLaren made the correct call, though, as he highlighted how it would have been embarrassing had an ensuing battle culminated in a crash.

“So I didn’t really know about it because they said it to Oscar, not to me,” Norris told media including Motorsport Week.

“And it was literally just for two or three laps as we went through the backmarkers.

“It was risky conditions, and we’d look like complete idiots if we attempted to race and both ended up off the track – or worse, out of the race – when we had a great result in hand.

“It was just for a couple of laps that they asked us to hold position, and then he was free to race again.

“We were free to race all the way up until that point, and then there was just a holding period for a few laps. After that, it was back to normal.

“I think that’s all I really knew about it. I’m sure we’ll talk about it more – we even had a little chat about it this morning.”

McLaren prioritised the team result

Norris dismissed suggestions that McLaren had sought to prioritise him, citing that Piastri was permitted to race him once the circumstances were more appropriate.

“From the team’s perspective, it wasn’t about me or Oscar, it was about McLaren – we’re first and second, let’s not do anything silly when we don’t need to,” he said.

“There’s still a lot of opportunity left for Oscar to race me, and it would have been stupid to try and force a situation when we’re behind backmarkers, blue flags.

“If you go offline at that part of the race, you’re in the wall. At that stage of the race, I was still trying to think I need get these tyres to last until Lap 54 or whatever.

“I think Oscar was just pushing a bit more and trying to get past me. But yeah, it was all comfortable from my side.”

READ MORE – Oscar Piastri casts ‘clear’ verdict on McLaren F1 team orders

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Lando Norris believes that McLaren hadn’t been “pushing the limits enough” on rear-wing flex amid a fresh clampdown for the Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix.

The FIA enforced a new limit on rear wing flex for the season-opening Australian GP, with stricter front wing limitations due for Round 9 in Spain.

However, after observations in Melbourne, the FIA has tightened rear-wing restrictions even further.

The new technical directive mandates that rear wings flex at a limit of 0.5mm under a vertical load-bearing test of 75kg on the mainplane, with a China-only tolerance of 0.25mm.

This is to combat the supposed ‘mini-DRS’ effect that McLaren courted controversy with in Baku last year which led to Norris being asked whether his team is under stress trying to adapt to the new technical directive in Shanghai.

“Nope,” was the McLaren driver’s response to the query on Thursday. 

“We don’t have to change anything. 

“Ours is fine. In fact, ours was probably too good. 

“We’re probably not pushing the limits enough, honestly. 

“If this technical directive was applied for last weekend, we’d also be fine. 

“So it’s not directed at us, it seems. It’s directed at other teams.

“Which probably means we need to push it a little bit more.”

Who will benefit from the technical directive?

The FIA monitored several teams during the Australian GP weekend for rear wing flex, including McLaren and made post-race checks on Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, George Russell’s Mercedes, Carlos Sainz’s Williams and Norris’ MCL39.

The governing body then elected to slash rear wing flex tolerances by 75% so clearly believes one or more teams were exploiting the regulations.

Voices within the Red Bull camp certainly feel as if McLaren or others were exploiting the regulations regarding wing flexibility.

Technical Director Pierre Wache was pointing fingers during pre-season testing 

“It is still going on,” he told The Race.

“I think Ferrari and McLaren are doing the mini-DRS stuff still.”

Red Bull also boasts that any tightening up on wing flexibility will benefit the Milton Keynes-based outfit.

Whether it can reel McLaren in this weekend looks to be uncertain, especially given Norris’ defiant claims his team is well within rear-wing flex limits.

The FIA noted that no team was in breach of the previous 2mm tolerance in Australia, which tallies with Andrea Stella’s comments to Sky Sports ahead of the new campaign.

“[It’s] no headache at all,” he said.

“We don’t have to make many adjustments at all for the start of the season.

“There will be a small adjustment required from race nine,” he added, highlighting front wing flexibility is an area McLaren continues to pursue.

Can Red Bull hold on until June before McLaren is pegged back?

READ MORE – Lando Norris makes ominous vow to F1 rivals over McLaren’s 2025 potential

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Lando Norris has bemoaned the Netflix fly-on-the-wall Formula 1 series, Drive to Survive, saying the show’s depiction of his rivalry with Max Verstappen as “fabricated nonsense.”

The World Championship leader has called into question the way the show has depicted his 2024 title battle with the Dutchman, who went on to clinch his fourth successive Drivers’ crown.

In the second episode, Verstappen is portrayed as being significantly unhappy with losing the Miami Grand Prix to Norris, the Brit’s first-ever F1 win.

However, some of the footage used is taken from a moment at the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, when Verstappen lost out on a home win to the McLaren driver.

Speaking ahead of his successful Australian Grand Prix, Norris said the show should take a more truthful tact.

“They need to show the truth about people more,” he said.

“I’m not a fan of fake stuff. I want facts. I don’t want made-up scripts and fabricated nonsense, which there is.

“The portrayal of Max, and how we were against each other so much, they don’t need to create that drama, just show the facts.

“It is almost lying in some ways, and I just don’t think that’s correct. They just jumble up the whole thing and they don’t care when they put it in.

“Maybe it needs to be more of a documentary of the season, more than a show like they’re trying to do. It has drifted too far away.”

Verstappen ‘ignores’ and Russell says he ‘doesn’t care’ how he’s portrayed by Netflix

Verstappen, an outspoken critic of the show, had previously mocked this particular moment in the series, and speaking to media including Motorsport Week in Melbourne, he stated that he tries his best to give it any of his attention.

“I’m not surprised, so… I didn’t watch it,” he said. “It’s just unfortunate you see these things pop up on X, but you just need to quickly ignore it so it doesn’t come up again in your feed.

“No, not blocked [Netflix], because they see that. If you ignore it, then no one knows.”

Fellow Brit George Russell, who completed the podium with Norris and Verstappen at Albert Park, appeared to echo Verstappen’s chosen ignorance of the show.

“I’ve got to be honest, I’ve not seen the episode in full … and I was fed back it was two extremes from the first half to the last half,” he told media including Motorsport Week.

“But ultimately, I don’t really care how I’m portrayed there, I care about how I perform in the car and how I work with my team, to be honest.

“There’s always an agenda for the best storyline possible and that’s just the way of the world with these entertainment programmes, as I said I haven’t even seen it and it’s not something that concerns me.”

READ MORE: Lando Norris makes ominous vow to F1 rivals over McLaren’s 2025 potential

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Lando Norris has warned McLaren’s rivals there will be tracks that are more suited to the team’s 2025 Formula 1 car amid its strong start at the Australian Grand Prix.

McLaren delivered on the promise it had shown in pre-season last weekend as Norris overcame changeable conditions to win the season-opening race at Albert Park.

The paddock consensus that McLaren’s MCL39 car is a class apart was realised as Norris and team-mate Oscar Piastri pulled ahead at a rapid rate as the track dried.

Norris had opened up a substantial 18-second lead over Verstappen’s Red Bull inside 26 racing laps when Fernando Alonso’s crash on Lap 34 triggered the Safety Car.

That has enhanced concern that the Woking-based squad, which also took a front-row lockout with three-tenths in hand on the Red Bull, could be primed to dominate.

But while he predicted there will be venues that expose McLaren’s limitations, Norris is adamant there will also be circuits where the MCL39 is even more competitive.

Asked whether he thinks there will be circuits McLaren will struggle at, Norris told media including Motorsport Week: “I do, but I think we’ll have both.

“I think we’ll have tracks where we will be even better, and I think we’ll have a couple where we’ll struggle.

“We were good last year, especially in the second half of the season, but Vegas was woeful. In fact, we were shocking.

“There are other tracks along those lines where we did struggle quite a bit.

“We’ve definitely made our car much more balanced across all types of circuits – high speed, low speed, high downforce, low downforce. We’re competitive at most.

“But these low grip tracks like Vegas, we really struggled. It highlighted our issues with the front of the car – the graining, the lack of rotation.

“We know that, though. We know where we’re going to struggle.”

Where could McLaren come undone?

Norris pinpointed Bahrain as one track where the opposition could edge McLaren, despite the side’s standout pace at the venue during pre-season testing last month.

“Even in Bahrain a couple of weeks ago, we came out confident, but everyone was hyping us up a lot,” he highlighted.

“Mainly just because our high-fuel pace was very strong. But on low fuel, we were struggling. We were not as quick as some of the others.

“Even if we took all our fuel out and max the engine mode, I don’t think we would have been quicker.

“We know we have work to do. If we raced in Bahrain again, I wouldn’t be confident we could win the race.

Norris expects strong McLaren in China

Norris harbours optimism that McLaren will go well again in China this weekend, though, having split the dominant Red Bull cars in 2024 with his launch-spec MCL38.

“I’m confident that when we go to China next weekend, we can be very strong, because we were strong there last year with not a very good car,” he assessed.

“So, a mixture. But I hope not. Vegas was our worst last season, so I’m hoping we’ll improve by then.”

READ MORE – McLaren ‘surprised’ by overall competitiveness of 2025 F1 car

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Lando Norris has denied George Russell’s claim that McLaren’s advantage is so vast that it can afford to turn attention to the new rules coming to Formula 1 in 2026.

The widespread consensus that McLaren possesses the benchmark package in the MCL39 came true in Australia as Norris converted pole position into the race win.

Norris retaining more than three-tenths over the closest non-McLaren car – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen – in qualifying led Russell to indicate the gap is insurmountable.

The Mercedes driver vowed that McLaren could allocate all resources to the impending regulation overhaul and still win both championships in the current campaign.

However, Norris has discarded his compatriot’s assertion as he highlighted how Red Bull began 2024 with an even bigger margin and didn’t win the Constructors’ title.

The Briton has voiced that McLaren’s desire to minimise the chance it experiences an identical decline will ensure that the team guards against complacency in 2025.

Asked whether McLaren can be regarded as the outstanding favourite this season, Norris responded to media including Motorsport Week: “Let’s see.

“Max was three-tenths off yesterday. Last year, we were much further off and ended up with the best car by the end of the season.

“We were over half a second off at the beginning of last year behind Red Bull and ended up with the quickest car.

“I know George made some comments earlier this weekend that they can just turn our focus to 2026. If that’s their mentality, wonderful, but that’s not the mentality to have.

“We know we still have a lot of work to do on this year’s car. If you relax in this position, you fail.

“In Formula 1, if you start thinking things are good and groovy, that’s when you get caught.”

Norris insists McLaren will ‘struggle’ in 2025

Norris has cautioned that it would be premature to state that McLaren is now uncatchable, despite the team’s dominant showing through all conditions in Albert Park.

The now five-time F1 race winner believes the perception surrounding McLaren’s potential would not have been the same had the campaign begun in Bahrain instead.

“I do think we’re favourites because the team has done an amazing job, and the car is flying,” he acknowledged. “But we will have races where we struggle.

“If we started the season in Bahrain, I don’t think we would have won, and you wouldn’t be asking me this question.

“Let’s allow a few more races to take place before making any obvious statements.”

McLaren line-up boosts team’s chances

Meanwhile, Norris reckons he and Oscar Piastri being more well-matched than other team-mate pairings helps both drivers to maximise the package at their disposal.

“We are the team to beat, mainly because we have two drivers up there pushing each other,” he continued. “That helps.

“Do I think me and Oscar pushing each other in qualifying yesterday allowed us to get one and a half, one-tenth more than the two drivers here because their team-mates aren’t as equipped or experienced? Yes, so add that into the equation as well. It’s not just about the car.

“The team has done an amazing job, and I thank them for everything they’re doing. But we know we can make it better, and that’s our aim.”

READ MORE – McLaren explains decision to use team order in F1 Australian GP

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Lando Norris kicked off the 2025 Formula 1 season with victory at the Australian Grand Prix, but he was made to sweat in the final few laps with Max Verstappen hot on his heels.

The McLaren racing driver led from pole position to take the fifth victory of his career, as he laid down a statement win over his title rivals for 2025.

In tricky wet-weather conditions, Norris was untroubled for the majority of the Grand Prix – his team-mate Oscar Piastri failing to get by.

The British driver handled the transition to dry tyres, but as the rain returned, he experienced an off-moment at Turn 13 before pitting to revert back onto a set of intermediate tyres.

Amidst the chaos, Norris and McLaren made the right call.

However, after Verstappen’s gamble to stay out longer did not pay off, the Dutchman applied the pressure to Norris late on as his tyres faded, and he ran wide at Turn 6.

But Norris held on for the victory in Melbourne, discussing his thoughts after the race on when the Red Bull driver appeared in his mirrors.

“So, I knew Max would be quicker in those last few laps, and I knew he would risk more because there were only a few laps left,” he told media including Motorsport Week.

“I did make a mistake at Turn 6 – I just put a wheel on the gravel and lost all my momentum and drive.

“Max got within DRS, and DRS really helped him stay there.

“It’s tough because it’s not just the pressure of him being there, it’s the pressure of knowing that if I put a wheel too close to a white line on entry, I’m off.

“If I clip the kerb wrong in Turn 6, I’m off.

“If I dip a wheel in the gravel, I get a bad run and he’s past.

“There are so many little things that can go wrong.

Papaya squad eases Norris’ worries

It’s no secret that in 2024, the pressure got to Norris when he was sprung into a title fight with the multiple World Champion, Verstappen.

He lacked experience, and it became evident that he was not able to convert McLaren’s pace into a championship-winning season.

Yet after a season of learnings for both the team and the driver, which sees Norris return as a race winner, the 24-year-old appears ready to take the next step.

Continuing to explain the pressure he felt during the final laps of the Grand Prix, he revealed the role his race engineer Will Joseph and Andrew Jarvis played in helping him handle the nerves.

“[I was] just trying to concentrate on not locking up, not rear locking, not hitting the kerbs wrong, but still trying to go quicker than before because the guy behind is doing the same,” Norris added.

“It was stressful – I’m not going to lie, I was checking my mirrors a lot.

“Even Will came on the radio and told me to chill out a bit.

“He knows, and Jarv [Andrew Jarvis], my performance engineer, knows very quickly from my driving when I’m pushing too much or when I’m pushing the entries too much.

“They’re quick to jump in and say, ‘do this better’ or ‘watch out for that’ because they know what I struggle with.

“Especially in a situation like that.”

Norris: Verstappen can handle the pressure better

The Bristol-born racing driver went into detail as to why he suffered so much in the latter stages of the Grand Prix.

“The thing is, I knew I was going to struggle a bit because I put the Inters on two laps before Max, and with half the track still being dry, I pushed,” he stated.

“Even the high-speed was dry, so I kind of destroyed my tyres a little.

“The front tyres – you could see the rubber was already rolling over on the edges.

“I knew my pace advantage wouldn’t be as much as at the beginning of the race.

“At the very beginning, when it was wettest, Max was just as quick as us.

“As it dried, we got a lot quicker, and Red Bull started to struggle.”

Whilst he conceded that Verstappen is better at handling these types of scenarios, Norris remained positive after he held on for the victory.

“That situation was new for me,” he said.

“I’ve never led a race with five laps to go with Max behind me, trying to put me under pressure in these conditions.

“Maybe Max has had that a few times – he’s raced against Lewis [Hamilton] a lot and can deal with it better than I can.

“For me, it was a first, so it was about seeing how I handled it when I got there.

“I’m happy I got through it and stayed calm.

“It’s something I improved from last year.”

READ MORE: McLaren reveals Lando Norris won F1 Australian GP with ‘badly damaged’ floor

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McLaren has explained how the presence of backmarkers and an uncertain weather radar caused the team to issue team orders in Formula 1‘s Australian Grand Prix.

Having resisted Max Verstappen’s initial threat, McLaren was in a dominant position as Lando Norris led Oscar Piastri with a considerable gap to the Red Bull behind.

But as the track dried approaching half distance, Piastri emerged as a genuine threat to his team-mate as he closed to within the one-second window to activate DRS.

However, McLaren intervened to tell Piastri to maintain position behind Norris, much to the Australian’s displeasure as he expressed that he was quicker at that stage.

The Woking-based squad’s decision went against the standpoint that it had communicated in the lead-up to the season that the two drivers would be allowed to race.

McLaren boss Andrea Stella has divulged that concern about navigating lapped cars ahead and the threat of more rain descending prompted the team to take action.

“So, during the race, at some stage, we had to go relatively soon through some backmarkers, while the cars were close together and the conditions on track were still a little tricky with Intermediates tyres that were running down a bit in terms of their rubber on,” Stella told media including Motorsport Week.

“And at the same time, we were receiving some updates on the weather forecast.

“So, we had the going through the backmarkers and the update on the weather forecast that led us to close for a short period of time the internal racing between our two drivers until we had clarity as to the weather prediction, what this meant for how we should have used the tyres, and then until we had closed the matter of overtaking the backmarkers.

“So, once this was completed and the weather was assessed, then we reopened the racing.”

McLaren wanted to limit holding pattern period

Stella has insisted that McLaren was eager to limit the holding pattern to a limited time in order to give Piastri an adequate chance to pursue a race win on home soil.

“The drivers were aware when we gave the team order to hold positions, and then they were aware when we told them to be free to race,” he elucidated.

“And in the meantime, I left to review the communications with the drivers, but for drivers, we didn’t even know ourselves how long this period would have been until the weather forecast had become a little clearer. So, we just tried to keep this period as short as possible, and the drivers know that this is the case, so we don’t want to make it unnecessarily long.”

Piastri mistake vindicated McLaren decision

McLaren did reverse its stance on permitting the duo to race, but that arrived once Piastri had dropped back having dipped a wheel in the gravel going through Turn 6.

Stella believes the two-time F1 race winner’s minor mistake vindicated the squad’s choice to prohibit him from making an earlier push to challenge Norris for the lead.

“I think in terms of retaining a consistent pace at that stage of the races, it was difficult, which is also one of the reasons why we wanted to pause the internal competition for a few laps, because both drivers were making little mistakes here and there because I think as soon as you were putting the tyres on a slightly more wet portion, then you may have a sudden oversteer, you may have a little lock-up because the front left was already quite worn,” Stella elaborated.

“So I don’t know exactly what kind of issues he might have had in terms of pace in this phase of the race, but I suspect that it might have to do with these little issues that pushing at that level in those conditions, I’ve seen regularly on either of the drivers.”

READ MORE – McLaren reveals Lando Norris won F1 Australian GP with ‘badly damaged’ floor

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McLaren has disclosed that a “pretty badly damaged” floor threatened Lando Norris’ eventual race win during the closing stages of Formula 1‘s Australian Grand Prix.

Norris began his ambition to win a maiden Drivers’ title in 2025 on the right note as he converted pole position in the season-opening round at the Albert Park Circuit.

However, the Briton had to repel a late charge from Max Verstappen to prevail as the Red Bull driver pressurised his McLaren rival on a damp track in the closing laps.

McLaren had been on course to take a prized 1-2 until increased rainfall caused both drivers to run wide, culminating in Oscar Piastri spinning at the penultimate turn.

Verstappen capitalised on the challenging conditions to move to within DRS range on Norris, but he couldn’t get close enough to attempt an overtake on the McLaren.

But McLaren boss Andrea Stella has now revealed that the pace shown at the end wasn’t representative as Norris was made to nurse a wounded MCL39 to the finish.

“So one issue we had in the final laps of the race with Lando is that he had the floor pretty badly damaged,” Stella told media including Motorsport Week.

“So he had lost, I haven’t heard the numbers yet, but he lost aerodynamic performance and this meant that he couldn’t utilise the full pace of the car. 

“So I think the situation got more tense than would have normally been the case because of this damage on Lando’s car. 

“I think how strong the car was, we could see actually with Oscar that in the space of a few laps [after his spin] he recovered three or four positions.

“So I think in normal circumstances it shouldn’t have been that difficult for Lando [to hold onto the win].”

McLaren unsure when Norris incurred damage

Stella addressed that McLaren would have to resort to the data to determine whether the damage had been incurred when Norris ventured wide at Turn 12 on Lap 44.

“We are not sure if it was that off on the gravel when the rain came, or if it’s an off that he had after the restart,” he admitted. “We’re not sure. 

“We will be able to assess that through the data by looking at where we see the step down of aerodynamic performance.”

McLaren not discounting Red Bull/Verstappen threat

Verstappen, who had overtaken Piastri at Turn 2 on the opening lap, had threatened to mount an attack on the sister McLaren during the initial stint on Intermediates.

But Verstappen struggling to maintain pace with Norris triggered a mistake at Turn 11 on Lap 15 which allowed Piastri through and saw his times drop at a rapid rate.

Stella expressed that Verstappen’s sporadic challenge came as no surprise, with McLaren remaining attentive to the threat Red Bull might pose in the coming rounds.

“With the pace of Verstappen and Red Bull, there’s never a surprise,” the Italian commented.

“It’s Verstappen and Red Bull, so they know how to make quick cars, they know how to race fast, and they know how to race well in this kind of tricky and unchangeable conditions. 

“So it’s not a surprise that Verstappen was so close to us and he was in contention for the victory until the last metre of the race. 

“I think probably in the early stages of the race, in order to try and stay with Lando, he might have used his tyres a little too hard

and that’s why he then lost some of the pace and during the first stint, we could open a gap that was equivalent to a pit stop at some stage.

“So I think at that time, he might have tried to get a bit too much from the tyres, but I think every driver that races for victories tries and gives it a go and sees what happens with the tyres. 

“So overall, not a surprise, but like I said before, we will have to see a few more races to actually see what is the real competitiveness situation.”

READ MORE – Lando Norris: ‘Decisive’ McLaren strategy avoided repeat of losing ‘guaranteed’ wins

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