‘We were nervous’ – Andrea Stella opens up on ‘tense’ Chinese GP for McLaren amid fears 1-2 finish would slip through their fingers

“The race has been more tense than it might have looked,” he said. “First of all, because at the [pit] stop we lost a position with Lando to Russell, so we needed to recover the position thanks to a really great overtake by Lando. It solved the situation.

“Then it was very much about observing what the tyres would have done, but we were nervous, because we knew that there was a lot of graining. It wasn’t clear whether it would have been a two or a one [stop], if our competitors split, some going for two, some going for one, then which one do you pick?

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“Then, around 15-20 laps to the end, we started to develop a problem on the brake pedal for Lando. Lando did a very good job, together with the team, to manage through the problem, adapting the driving style such that it didn’t become a terminal problem.

“Not without some tension, we brought home a P1, P2, but it shows that it’s always very marginal and, if anything, there are opportunities to do even better.”

Stella also offered a deeper analysis of his two drivers’ respective weekends – Piastri looking supreme in Qualifying and the Grand Prix while Norris faced some car balance problems and at one point described his MCL39 as “too difficult to drive”.