Stella: There was only one training, I had to take risks

After the only Friday practice at the Red Bull Ring, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella spoke about her mood this weekend and in general at this stage of the season. He also commented on the results of the first session of the weekend, in which Oscar Piastri was second fastest and Lando Norris thirteenth.

Andrea Stella: “We are about halfway through a series of three races in a row and of course it is all a bit tiring, but McLaren is now in a very successful period. However, Formula 1 as a whole is going through very interesting times as many drivers driving cars from different teams can compete for victories.

This is of course good, and the good news for us is that McLaren is one of those teams.

If we talk about the results of the session, Lando Norris could have shown a better result than 13th place, but we saw that on his fast lap he locked the brakes before Turn 4. If the weekend program includes sprints, there is but one session and you therefore have to take risks, because the riders do not have many opportunities to test what the real grip level is.

They need to drive on the limit or even beyond it to understand how aggressively they can attack in qualifying. And we have seen that if you push this limit just a little bit, you can end up in the gravel. But there are no problems, the car is not damaged, everything is fine and we are ready for qualifying.

We can say that the Austrian circuit is distinguished by its combined characteristics. The first part of the lap is fast, followed by some fast corners, so we hope that our car’s different strengths come into their own here and that we can be competitive this weekend.

We feel we are well prepared, and if there are elements of uncertainty ahead, then everyone is on equal footing in that regard.”