McLaren Tire Change Error: Andrea Stella Explains What Went Wrong

Andrea Stella has been transparent when analyzing McLaren's performance at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, the British team director acknowledged that the decision to mount medium tires at the start was an error of judgment that cost them valuable time and conditioned the rest of the race. Despite the fact that Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris managed to come back to sixth and ninth position respectively, the result was far from the expectations of a team that just a few weeks ago was fighting for victories.

"On the pit wall, in terms of making decisions and tire strategy the most difficult moment was undoubtedly at the start. It wasn't clear if the track required intermediate tires or if it would work for dry tires" Stella explained. The team based its decision on the historical knowledge of Sepang, a circuit that normally dries quickly and whose rough surface allows dry tires to reach temperature even in wet conditions, however this time the logic was not fulfilled: "It seemed from what we could observe that the track was dry enough to stay with the dry tires and we thought they would activate quickly, but in fact they took more laps than we thought" he admitted.

The error had immediate consequences, Piastri made the decision to enter the pits at the end of the second formation lap to mount intermediates, losing his starting position but putting himself on the correct tires. Norris for his part, stayed on track with the slicks and fell to fifteenth position, losing large amounts of time per lap: "With Lando we lost race time and with Oscar too because we needed to enter the pits and accept that the track was only suitable for intermediate tires. That was the most complicated moment" Stella noted.

The McLaren director clarified that there was no deliberate strategy of splitting his drivers: "It wasn't as simple as splitting, it was more the uncertainty about how long the dry tires would take to start working. Ultimately it was an incorrect judgment about the crossover point at which dry tires would be faster than intermediates" he explained.

Stella also acknowledged that the drivers' opinion influenced the decision: "I think Oscar thought it wasn't going to be fast and with Lando it's possible that we biased him in the wrong direction. He was probably more in the direction that he should have come in for intermediates but we tried to see if we could stay with the mediums" he added.

Despite the points scored Stella was realistic about McLaren's situation: "We see a scenario in F1 that seems to be changing rapidly, in Hungary we took some improvements and we were in a position to have pole. Then very quickly the panorama changes, we have to take a look at our own development. We don't see any anomaly in our data but we have to acknowledge that potentially some competitors have developed their car with bigger steps than ours" he stated.

The McLaren director trusts that Singapore will offer a clearer answer about the true level of the MCL40 and about whether the improvements introduced are bearing the expected fruit.