McLaren Formula 1 team principal Andrea Stella says that Lando Norris’s first GP win in Miami is a weight off the shoulders of both the Englishman and his team.
Norris scored his first victory early in his sixth season in F1, and in his 110th start at the top level, having previously earned 14 podium finishes.
Stella admits that there’s a collective relief at the team team now that it has provided him with a truly competitive car, helped by an upgrade package introduced in Florida.
“Realistically, I think it was a bit of a weight on his shoulders,” said Stella. “But it was some weight on our shoulders as well. Because we knew that as soon as we had made winning material available to Lando, he would have delivered, so we felt the responsibility.
“And I think I said that many times. We feel like it’s up to us, it’s not up to Lando. But credit to Lando that he kept developing. I think we already talked about how he developed over the winter, especially looking at for instance improving in qualifying, delivering laps that sometimes don’t have to be 100%.
“When you have a fast car, just be there. And I think he’s doing that. And also I have to say his race management is now very mature. As soon as he saw that there wasn’t much to do after the first lap, he started had to save tyres, because he knew his race would come at some stage.
“And then the pace he was able to pull off once the cars ahead of him pitted, then that was quite incredible. So fast in qualifying, even sometimes pacing himself, and very mature in the race in terms of getting the most out of the material he has.”
While a safety car period gave Norris a break in terms of track position Stella insisted that he was competitive in his own right.
“I already had early on some important clues, like when we saw Oscar [Piastri] overtaking a Ferrari,” said the Italian.
“Max was opening a gap, but he wasn’t as fast as usual, let’s say. And then when the cars ahead of Lando pitted and we saw what kind of lap times Lando was able to do, then even without the safety car, we thought like, if we keep Lando out, and we build a good gap, then we’re going be fast at the end with a fresh set of hard tyres.
“I think the victory sort of came with a little bit of help from the safety car. But I think we were in a strong position even independently, because the pace of the car was strong.
“We couldn’t necessarily see it in the other sessions, but we had spells of very strong performance at times. But we were uncertain whether the truth was the strong performance, or some of the disappointment like we had in the sprint qualifying three, for instance.”
Stella admitted that while Norris built up a handy lead in the closing laps the fear was that a safety car would allow rivals to switch to fresher tyres for the restart.
“The last laps, the main concern for me was the safety car,” he said. “Because it would have been difficult to make a decision when you leave the race as to like, do we stop or not to put some new rubber?
“And also you don’t know how long there’s going to be the race after the restart. So that was the main reason of concern over the final laps, and there were many battles. So anytime you see an overtaking, please don’t crash! So those were the thoughts at the end of the race.”
Adam Cooper F1 