McLaren “surprised” by the pace of its drivers at the Chinese Grand Prix
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said that his team's pace at the Chinese GP in Shanghai, particularly that of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, was particularly surprising, after a sprint performance deemed more subdued.
The driver Lando Norris had started in the lead for the 19-lap sprint race on Saturday morning, but after running off the track at the start, he finished sixth in the ranking due to Fernando Alonso’s retirement. He thus finished ahead of his teammate Oscar Piastri, but behind the two Ferrari drivers, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. His race pace compared to the Scuderia seemed in line with the moderate expectations of the Woking team for the weekend. However, to everyone’s surprise, Norris split the Red Bulls to finish second on Sunday, while Sainz and Leclerc failed to make it to the podium.
Favorable weather conditions
Lando Norris stated that nothing suggested a better competitiveness of the team than expected on Sunday, but the team principal, Andrea Stella, suggested that cooler weather conditions were a possible explanation.
« I think that in one way or another, the track conditions and the cold weather, the fact that there was no sun, helped to keep the rear tires under control. And so we were able to use the strengths of the car, as we saw in qualifying. […] The rear axle in particular did not overheat. Whereas if we look at the sprint race, I think we had a bit of overheating and Ferrari seemed to be more comfortable, said Stella.
« Honestly, during the sprint, we did not realize that we had a race pace that could have allowed us to finish ahead of Ferrari. It was somewhat in line with what we expected before coming here. So, it’s a bit of a surprise, especially in terms of race pace. We know we are strong when we have new soft tires, we can do a good job on one lap, but when we string laps together, we tend to lose some performance,” added the director.
Piastri also defended himself well.
Oscar Piastri, on the other hand, finished eighth after sustaining damage during the safety car collision between Daniel Ricciardo and Lance Stroll, with Ricciardo’s RB marking his diffuser which, according to Stella, cost him up to four tenths per lap.
« His result is less spectacular than Lando’s, but I think he did a good job trying to understand how to drive the car when he lost so much rear downforce. The car was oversteering a lot. Oscar managed to hold positions that many would not have been able to maintain. He made some adaptations and managed to keep Hamilton behind, so it’s also a good result »,” concludes Andrea Stella.
