McLaren is basking in the glow of a memorable victory at the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday afternoon.
Lando Norris secured the first win of his F1 career as the Woking-based squad took their first Grand Prix victory since Daniel Ricciardo’s at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix.
Team boss Andrea Stella opened up on a wonderful race for the team following his trip to the podium to collect the trophy for the winning constructor.
After Oscar Piastri passed Carlos Sainz at the start with the Spaniard having to avoid an out of control and locked up Sergio Perez, the Australian overtook Charles Leclerc for P2 on lap 4.
For Stella, that moment and the fact Max Verstappen could not pull the gap out to beyond 3.7s in the opening stint to the Australian was an indicator that McLaren could fight the Dutchman for P1.
“I have to say that for me today I already had early on some important clues, like when we saw Oscar overtaking a Ferrari. Max was opening a gap but he wasn’t as fast as usual, let’s say.”
Norris had been running in P6 in the early stages but could not find a way past Sergio Perez as the RB20 was rapid on the straights.
However, once the Mexican driver boxed, the 24-year-old Brit unleashed his true speed.
He was able to lap between 0-2-0.5 a lap quicker than Piastri and Sainz in front of him before they boxed on lap 27. The Aussie had been over 7s clear of Norris at one point as Perez struggled for pace.
Even when Max Verstappen pitted at the end of lap 23 for a set of hards, Norris was still outpacing him on his old mediums.
Then the Safety Car appeared to clear Logan Sargeant’s Williams after he was taken out by Kevin Magnussen.
It gave McLaren the opportunity to take a cheap stop and allowed Norris to retain the lead ahead of the three-time World Champion.
Stella explained hints of the pace had been there throughout the weekend. The speed they had in the race was somewhat of a surprise to the Italian after the ups and downs throughout Friday and Saturday, howver.
“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 if we keep Lando out and we build a good gap, then we are going to be fast at the end with a fresh set of tyres.
“So 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.”
Regarding the strategy, Stella praised Norris for how he was handling things in the car.
As Norris continued to bang in low 1:32s and was able to extend the gap to Verstappen on fresh hards in the process, McLaren had no intention of pitting him unless there was a pace car.
The team was looking to create a tyre offset to the Ferraris and Verstappen before boxing.
“In fairness, he was so comfortable, he was calm.
“I don’t know if the radio was broadcasted, but he kept saying, ‘guys I’m good, tyres are good, stay calm, we keep going’.
“So I think it would have been very interesting in terms of how long we could have gone.
“But there was no plan to pit, as long as he was able to achieve green sectors and as long as his lap times were competitive with the people that have pitted on hard.
“And then you go as long as, actually, you start to lose some time, because you have two benefits.
“One is you may find a Safety Car, and the other one is that if you have 25 laps younger tyres, then you are in condition to seriously attack the cars ahead, even if the overtaking is difficult.”
Regarding Norris’ driving in the opening laps, that also received praise from his team principal.
During his years at Ferrari, Stella was Fernando Alonso’s race engineer from 2010-2014. On many occasions at the start of stints, Alonso would manage his tyres very carefully before launching attacks later on, as well as putting down very fast lap times.
It’s exactly what Norris did on Sunday. He dropped around 2 seconds behind Perez in the opening laps and closed up to him before the Mexican pitted.
Once he had clean air, he was the fastest driver on track before the Safety Car as he looked after his tyres expertly.
“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 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, that was quite incredible.
“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.”
In the closing stages, Tom Stallard came on the radio to Oscar Piastri to tell him not to take too many risks as McLaren wanted to avoid a Safety Car scenario.
For Andrea Stella, it was a nervy time as a Safety Car could have turned things around in a negative sense.
In the final few laps, there was a series of battles going on outside the points, as well as Ocon and Alonso going at it for P9.
Norris built up a 7.6s gap in 25 laps to take a commanding win.
“The last laps, the main concern for me was the Safety Car, because it would have been difficult to make a decision when you lead the race as to do we stop or not to put some new rubber on.
“And also you don’t know how long is 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 [move], you’re like ‘please don’t crash’.
“So those were the thoughts at the end of the race.”
