The British team principal acknowledged that Norris could have won: "We didn't know how to take advantage of the opportunity," he stated. He also pointed out that Antonelli's undercut and the time lost in the pit lane were decisive.
Andrea Stella, McLaren team principal, did not hide his self criticism after the Miami Grand Prix, despite Lando Norris finishing second and Oscar Piastri third, the British team left Florida with the feeling that they had let a victory slip away that was within reach: "We could have lost the possibility of winning it, again due to an issue of execution and optimization of what we had available," Stella declared in statements collected by the team.
The Italian's analysis was surgical: Norris led the race in the first stint and kept control over Kimi Antonelli, however, the decision to pit one lap later than the Mercedes driver proved fatal. The Italian's undercut worked perfectly, allowing him to overtake Norris and manage the advantage to the checkered flag.
"If we had kept Lando in the lead, we could have led the race to the end," admitted Stella, who also broke down the factors that contributed to the error. "The timing of the pit stop was the decisive factor, but at the same time, we must be careful not to see it only from a strategic point of view, because we also lost time in the pit lane, for example, which is an execution aspect," he stated.
Stella wanted to put the setback into perspective: "It's always a team effort and as a team we have done a great job to make McLaren competitive again but probably today we didn't know how to take advantage of the opportunity. We must not forget that we were competing with a faster car than ours," the team principal reflected.
In that sense, Stella outlined the new power map that Miami left behind. "Due to the upgrades that many teams have presented here, we have seen McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull close the gap, but Mercedes still has an advantage of a couple of tenths over the others. I think this was especially noticeable today in the race, in the Sprint, for some reason, Mercedes did not show its full potential," he stated.
The McLaren boss identified the virtues of his car and compared them with those of his rival. "If anything characterizes McLaren, it is its consistency with the tires, probably a little more than some of our competitors. While Mercedes' main advantage over us is pure pace, their car is just a couple of tenths faster than ours."
The overall balance, however, was positive for the Woking team: "We are very satisfied with the weekend and very encouraged, because in a single weekend we got more points than in the previous three races. We know we have more upgrades on the way, coming from the same group, so we are optimistic that they will allow us to take a few more steps forward," Stella closed, leaving a hopeful message.