Lando Norris delivered a dominant performance and Oscar Piastri made a strong recovery during the F1 Abu Dhabi GP as McLaren Racing, led by Team Principal Andrea Stella, claimed their first F1 World Constructors’ Championship (WCC) title since 1998.
Going into the Abu Dhabi GP weekend, McLaren, who had been top of the championship standings since the Azerbaijan GP, had been the favourite to claim the championship. However, despite their 21-point lead over Ferrari, and both Norris and Piastri starting on the front row, the title had been all but guaranteed.
A chaotic first lap further threatened their hopes, after Piastri dropped to the back of the pack following in Turn 1 collision with Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen. This allowed Scuderia Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz to move up to P2 from P3. Meanwhile, Sainz’s Ferrari teammate, Charles Leclerc, used the first-lap chaos to cut through the field, climbing to P8 by the end of the second lap. However, though Ferrari would finish the Abu Dhabi GP race P2 and P3, Norris’ win and Piastri’s P9 finish, saw the Woking-based team secure the title by just 14 points.
Adversities during Abu Dhabi GP allowed McLaren to show their strengths — Stella
After the Abu Dhabi GP, Stella about the Turn 1 collision between Verstappen and Piastri. He described Verstappen’s move as “a little unnecessary” but emphasised that the “adversity” helped McLaren showcase their strengths.
“Well, the first thought I had after checking corner one is that it felt unnecessary.
“You know, when you have teams fighting for the championship, it’s the pinnacle, it’s the time to harvest the efforts of a season. That felt a little unnecessary.
“But sometimes adversities give you the opportunity to show your strengths, and I think that’s exactly what happened today.”
Piastri “never gave up” during Abu Dhabi GP
Stella highlighted the resistance of Oscar Piastri as one of the team’s strengths. He noted that the Australian driver, who is in only his second season of F1, had “never given up” during the Abu Dhabi GP. Piastri’s resistance, Stella claimed, had allowed the driver to score the two points that had guaranteed the team their first title since1998, even if Norris lost position to Sainz.
“First of all, because Oscar never gave up, and he came back to scoring a point that could have been very important, if not the two points that could have been decisive, even in case of a swap between Carlos and Lando.”
Norris delivered “a perfect weekend” despite pressure
The McLaren team principal also praised race winner Lando Norris for delivering “a perfect weekend”. He added that Norris had been at his best during the Abu Dhabi GP, and commended the British driver for remaining calm and decisive despite the pressure on him.
Stella stated that he believed that Norris had been at his best during the Abu Dhabi GP weekend and stated that he could not wait to see how his drivers performed with a more competitive car.
“Lando showed his strengths, delivering a perfect weekend, and a perfect race when all the pressure was on him. And he stayed very calm, very calm on the radio. He considered some difficult options that we gave him, like when we said would you pit in case of safety car or not for a new set.
“So I think we saw Lando at his best, and his best is just incredibly competitive.
“I can’t wait to see Lando and Oscar in the future with a competitive car, right from race one.”
Stella stated that pitstop strategy had been crucial for McLaren’s championship fight
In addition to the strong performances by both McLaren drivers, Stella identified the team’s pitstop strategy as a major contributor to the outcome of their race. He explained that the team had executed “one of the best pitstops of the season” which had ultimately allowed Norris to avoid being undercut by Sainz. This, Stella claimed, had played a significant role in securing Norris’ victory, and by extension, McLaren’s title. The McLaren team principal praised his team’s mentality, maturity and resilience, which he claimed had helped them win the title.
“For me, if anything, the opportunity to show the strengths was in the last pit stop. The whole season was in the last pit stop.
“The problem at the pit stop was that we could have lost the position to Carlos, and we could have lost the championship. And the guys delivered what I think is one of the best pit stops of the season, confirming the trajectory, which was not only car performance, but was the overall maturity, mentality, emotional resilience of the entire team.”
“Hopefully, in the future, we don’t need adversities” — Stella
While Stella appeared pleased with the way McLaren had overcome the “adversities” resulting from the Turn 1 incident, he stated that he hoped to avoid a similar situation in the future. He said that he hoped that McLaren would have a faster car, to prevent them from being in such a decisive fight at the end of the season.
“So all this somehow was given the opportunity to be shown, thanks to the accident in corner one, but hopefully in the future we don’t need adversities, and we can have just a faster car, and we can be just safer and not being in a decisive race at the last races of the season.”
McLaren were aware of Sainz threat in final stint
Stella was also asked about a radio message from Norris during the final laps of the race. Norris, had been caught up among the back-markers, and had been struggling with the with his tyres. Stella admitted that he had been aware of the issue, and had been nervous, as excessive degration of Norris’ tyres could have handed Sainz the lead. He explained that this challenge had pushed the team to encourage Piastri to get into a points-position.
“We were aware. We were aware and that’s why we were pushing very hard with Oscar to make sure that we could get P9, because the two points would have been fundamental.”
Risk of safety car more of a concern than back-markers during Abu Dhabi GP
However, while Stella admitted that at the time of Norris’ message, there had been a “good gap” between Norris and Sainz. He explained that Norris had been the quickest car on track, due to his pace on the hard compound tyres, and this had allowed for a safety buffer to be built up between Norris and Sainz. Stella added that the team had been most worried about a safety car.
“And we were definitely nervous, because not only the back markers were a problem, but the safety car would have been a problem, because Carlos could have done the opposite of what we do. So if we don’t pitted, he could have gone on new tyres and it would have been a problem. If we had pitted, he would have taken the lead and we should have overtaken him. So we were definitely nervous because of this happening.
“Not so much about the back markers. Somehow it is expected that you lose a bit of grip behind the back markets, but this is not a track where there’s a lot of space to overtake back markers.
“At that stage, Lando had built a good gap to Carlos, which was good to see, by the way, because in the first stint I don’t think there was much to pick in terms of performance between Ferrari and McLaren.
“But on the harder compounds, like it has often happened this season, Lando was the quickest car on track and this meant that we had a safety buffer.”
