McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella admits he is “not really interested in being comfortable” when managing the title battle between drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris after a 1-2 in the Belgian Grand Prix, adding that the pair are operating at the level of previous World Champions.
The pair locked out the front row for Sunday’s race at Spa-Francorchamps, with Piastri coming out on top after overtaking polesitter Norris on the long run to Les Combes once racing got underway after a rain delay and Safety Car start.
Norris opted for the hard compound of tyre in comparison to Piastri on mediums when the pair made their only pit stops, and although the Briton closed a gap of 9.1s to just over 3s, Piastri took his sixth win of the campaign and extended his points margin to 16 points.
“There is very, very little between our two drivers, and this is because the two drivers are racing at a very, very high level,” said Stella post-race, with Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari 20s adrift of Piastri at the chequered flag in third.
“We are lucky at McLaren to have two drivers that deservedly are fighting for the World Championship. I think the difference will be made by the accuracy, the precision, the quality of the execution. We saw in Silverstone that an issue, a sporting issue for Oscar during the Safety Car start and the consequent penalty cost him the race.
“And somehow here, we saw that somehow related to the circuit characteristic like we said before, it would have always been very difficult for Lando to keep the position starting first at the Safety Car restart.”
He added: “Like I said before, we have two drivers, which to the standards that even myself in my career I’ve been close to, driving with multiple world champions [including Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen]. I think Lando and Oscar are operating at that level, at the level of deservedly being in contention for the Drivers’ World Championship.”
After losing the lead, Norris complained of derating over the radio with Stella confirming that “there was a slight anomaly” with the battery that impacted both cars but that “it’s very difficult for the car that leads the pack to actually arrive first in Turn 5”.
Regarding the strategy, Stella suggested it was Norris’ decision not to double stack behind Piastri and also his choice to use the hard rubber in the hopes of having a tyre advantage later in the race.
“The choice was open. Lando had a couple of lock-ups in Turn 1 and also a little oversteering in Turn 9 that cost him time,” said Stella.
“I think this overall prevented us from having an interesting battle possibly at the end, but in fairness, even Oscar had a couple of times in Turn 1 a little bit of a time loss.
“It’s very difficult when you push so much in these conditions, it’s very difficult to always drive within the limit of the grip.”
