Stella: Ideally, castling should have been done earlier

Andrea Stella is satisfied with the results of the sprint in Sao Paulo, in which the McLaren drivers won the winning double and achieved the maximum number of points. However, the head of the British team had to explain why Oscar Piastri only lost his position to Lando Norris in the closing stages of Saturday’s race.

Andrea Stella: “We kept a close eye on the size of the gaps, first from Charles Leclerc and then from Max Verstappen, and wondered if we could give Lando the chance to stay ahead of Oscar without complications. But in reality no big enough gap opened up, so we had to wait in case a safety car appeared or the virtual safety car (VSC) mode was introduced.

That happened when one of the cars stopped on the track and we immediately executed our plan. The team worked well, but it wouldn’t have been possible without the coordinated actions of both riders. We are very happy with the support that Oscar Lando has given. These sprint results are the best result we could achieve in both championship events.

Ideally, the castling would have been carried out earlier, but the situation did not allow this in a safe manner, because once such a change of position occurs, the driver driving third may have the opportunity to overtake someone. of the McLaren cars. And this would not be consistent with our principle that we should first think about the team result.”