Andrea Stella explained how Lando Norris’s pit stop execution during the Formula 1 Miami GP ended up causing his defeat last Sunday (3).
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The Briton went to the pits on lap 27 – a direct response to Kimi Antonelli’s stop one lap earlier – creating the chance for an undercut. As soon as the driver returned to the track, the Italian managed to take the lead of the pack and stayed there until the checkered flag.
Reflecting on the sequence of the stop, Stella detailed how McLaren came to the conclusion that Antonelli would manage to take the lead. “We were fighting against a car faster than ours, but maybe if we had kept Lando in the lead, we could have led until the end,” he said.
“When you are leading the race and have the conditions to maintain it, as Lando did, then you definitely have a chance to win. I think the timing of the pit stop was the decisive factor, but at the same time, we must be careful not to analyze it only from a strategic point of view, because we have the timing of the pit stop, but we also lost time in the pit lane, which is an execution aspect,” he continued.
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“It is a combination of the driver’s pit stop and the lap returning to the pits, and we lost a bit of time on the lap back, but it is always a team effort and, as a team, we did a great job to make McLaren competitive again in the fight for victory,” he continued.
“It is always a team effort and, as a team, we did a great job to make McLaren competitive again in the fight for victory. It was very difficult. Even with Lando in front on the exit of the pits, Antonelli was coming with warm tires and had the ideal racing line, so I think there was nothing we could have done,” he explained.
“We should have stopped Lando earlier, probably seven tenths of a second before, and that would have given him the possibility to keep the position. As soon as we realized that the pit stop was not perfect, we lost time in the pit lane and saw that the entry lap to the pits would not be very good. We knew that, with Antonelli coming with warm tires, it would be very difficult [to keep the lead]. It was a combination of factors that worsened the situation,” he concluded.
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