AUSTIN — Celebrations began Sunday night at Ferrari's hospitality space as the Scuderia enjoyed a one-two finish between Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr.
However, the atmosphere at McLaren was a little different.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri both finished in the points, but Norris was unable to maintain first until Turn 1 after lights out, opening the door for Leclerc to rise to the top as Norris battled with Max Verstappen. Ta. Two rivals for the drivers' championship then fought in the final laps and went off the track, and the matter was sent to race officials for investigation.
The incident can be viewed here:
Norris overtook Verstappen for third place in the exchange, but received a five-second penalty just before the checkered flag and was eventually relegated to fourth place, one place behind his title rival.
including dialogue with the media, SB Nationat McLaren's hospitality space on Sunday evening, McLaren team principals gave an extensive statement on the incident.
“Regarding the interpretation of the overtaking maneuver, I don't think the front of the apex is relevant. I think it's the defending car. [Verstappen] Go straight to the top. I checked the video multiple times. Just keep going in a straight line,” Stella began. “You're just as off-course as Lando is doing, and you're just not giving Lando a chance to complete the maneuver.”
Stella then gave the assembled media a little homework before continuing.
“If I were a journalist, I would have done a little statistics: “How many times has Max used this method to defend?'' Both cars went off the track, so if they had an advantage, both cars would have had an advantage. I think it is. So for us, this operation was at least neutral. ”
In interviews with the media, Norris emphasized his belief that racing officials should take the time to conduct such research and talk to stakeholders before making decisions.
Stella had the same idea.
“When we saw that there was an investigation going on, we were convinced that it was because Max had pushed Lando off the track. And in fact, we immediately told Oscar, “It could put the position in jeopardy, so make sure Max “I told them to close the gap by 5 seconds.” Therefore, the interpretations of this situation between McLaren and the stewards are diametrically opposed,” Stella began.
“I was surprised that the stewards didn't even feel the need to talk to the drivers after the race. It's an uncertain situation. Time to listen to the drivers and assess the situation with the level of detail that is needed when the situation is not so clear. We will ensure that,” Stella continued. “So where is the urgency to interfere with the outcome of a race? In a championship? Because a decision has to be made within 60 seconds? This is a question mark, but I think the stewards should take it constructively. .actively.
“Is there really a need to make decisions so quickly and, in our opinion, so wrong?”
Stella was then asked about the start of the race where Norris and Verstappen were well off the race line, opening the door for Leclerc.
“Charles Leclerc's Ferrari is gone!”
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Stella explained that while McLaren was certainly frustrated at that moment, he could understand that race officials took no action, calling it a “first-lap race incident.”
Not only did Max gain the position, but Lando was forced to leave for good, losing the position of the two Ferraris, which made him a little shaken by the maneuvers in corner one.
“At the same time. We understand to some extent that the stewards may have applied measures to alleviate the situation on lap 1, and we accepted that because we always respect the difficulties in which they operate. ” Steara said. “But they should also have respect for their work. And when it's very difficult to litigate, like with Lando and Max, they take the time to review it after the race and hear from the drivers. Try to understand the subtleties.
“So I think the first corner of the first lap can be mitigated by the interpretation of the first lap.”
Stella was asked why he didn't hand over the position to Norris during the late incident and tell him to take the decision out of the hands of race officials. This was brought up by Christian Horner during a media session at Red Bull's hospitality space. But there was no reason to do so, as in Stella's mind, and in the entire McLaren operation, the problem was clear.
“While it is everyone else's responsibility and my responsibility, this interpretation was fully agreed upon by all concerned.
There was no need to investigate this situation. And once we looked at it, we thought, if anything, Max should do an investigation to get Lando off the track,” Stella said.
“And when we found out this case was under investigation, we expected this to happen. So for us, there was no need to return the position because of this situation. That's what I explained earlier.”
Stella then mentioned the ongoing title battle between McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari, which finished within eight points of second-placed Red Bull.
“I think there are several factors to consider in terms of competitiveness,” Stella began. “As for Ferrari, I already said over the weekend that they had been quite consistently fast in previous races. If anything, they have not been able to reach their full potential.
“In Baku, I think in fairness Leclerc was definitely in a position to win the race.In Singapore I was expecting Leclerc. [to be] The fight for pole position was very competitive and it would have been the same in the race,” Stella continued. “So I'm not surprised that the Ferraris are so close, but when you look at the nature of the circuit, especially with the super slow section and going into some super fast sections, in those two situations, I'm not surprised. Our car is not performing at its best.
“And Red Bull, for example, is also very good at super low speeds and super fast speeds.
“I mean, if you think about Ferrari, they were already competitive,” Stella continued. 'And when you talk about Red Bull, which is a very talented group of engineers, I'm not surprised that we were struggling here in Austin. ”
The McLaren boss then said that Mexico City would prove more fertile ground for the team, while also noting that McLaren has several further upgrades scheduled for the next two race weekends.
“I think the next circuit should be a little more suited to the characteristics of our car,” Stella said. “We have to continue developing the car as well. We've made some developments to the front of the car, like this time, but nothing too big in terms of potential lap time impact. .
There's a few more things coming up for the next two races.
We'll see if the car is in good enough shape to be competitive.”
Stella concluded:
“We wanted to see what we could bring trackside.” [in terms of upgrades] Well behaved, we are very encouraged and I have to say well done again to our aero team. The parts we took here worked as expected and we hope the parts coming to Mexico will be similar. Brazil. “
With that, Stella left at night.
And the celebrations continued at Ferrari.
