Andrea Stella reveals McLaren’s strategy for dealing with internal rivalry
Andrea Stella reacts to Oscar Piastri's « bold » comment and explains how McLaren intends to handle internal rivalry in the future.
The McLaren boss, Andrea Stella, gave his opinion on Oscar Piastri’s reaction after Lando Norris benefited from an unexpected tow from him during the Spanish Grand Prix qualifying, with the Australian calling the incident « cheeky » on the radio.
« It was a minor situation »
While he dominated the Q1 and Q2 segments, Oscar Piastri seemed to have secured the provisional pole during the first runs in Q3, before Lando Norris went faster by taking advantage of his teammate’s slipstream in the final corner.
Warned on the radio that Lando Norris was going to pass him after the line, Oscar Piastri responded with irony: « Clever, that. » He nevertheless regained the advantage on the second run, thus securing his fourth pole position of the season.
When questioned later in the weekend — after a race where the Australian outperformed the British driver to secure a one-two finish for McLaren — about what this episode in qualifying revealed about the potential internal challenges the team might face this season.
The boss of the McLaren team downplayed the incident, instead emphasizing the importance of communication within the team. « It was a minor situation, » explained the team principal.
« We always tell our drivers: ‘Don’t keep anything to yourself, say what you think.’ In this case, I think Oscar simply wanted to highlight a situation that we hadn’t mentioned before. »
« It wasn’t particularly controversial in itself, but it hadn’t been discussed before, and we don’t want to surprise our drivers with unanticipated scenarios. So it’s more about the team doing its own introspection rather than pointing fingers at the drivers. »
« We have homework to do to be even better prepared for the upcoming races, which will undoubtedly be very interesting », he explains.
No tension within the team
Andrea Stella also assured that the pre-race briefings will not become more tense, even if Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris continue to fight at the front.
« The briefing doesn’t become more complicated, » he stated. « The discussions remain the same as before. »
Obviously, when the two drivers start side by side with 800 meters to the first corner, we sometimes have to go over every detail of how we race together. But so far, I can only be very grateful to Lando and Oscar, who handle this internal competition with a great sense of responsibility, perfectly respecting our racing principles, he concludes.
