Following lots of updates at the 2026 F1 Miami GP, McLaren returned to the front of the field at the weekend; Andrea Stella saw his drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri bag a 1-2 in the Sprint, before finishing P2 and P3 on Sunday.
Having overtaken Kimi Antonelli and Charles Leclerc before and after the Safety Car respectively, Lando Norris found himself in the lead of the race. From there it became a true head-to-head battle with cars #4 and #12 for the victory.
Just under 2s behind the World Champion, the 2026 championship leader boxed at the end of lap 26 for a set of hards as it became clear it would not rain. McLaren responded a tour later. However, a tricky in-lap on worn medium tyres, plus a slow stop, opened the door for Antonelli to take the lead thanks to a very strong out-lap.
Although the Brit could keep close initially through the second stint at around a second, the Italian gradually eased away and took the win by 3s.
Stella on fine margins and race pace at 2026 F1 Miami GP
Speaking in his print media session post-race, McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella discussed how the race played out.
An area McLaren proved to be incredibly strong in last year was looking after the tyres in long race stints. It was a clear advantage they held over Red Bull Racing, and Mercedes or Ferrari when they got close in qualifying sessions at times.
Nonetheless, the MCL40 did not quite have the raw pace of the W17 in the Grand Prix. The lack of degradation Mercedes F1 showed was strong as well.
“I think what we have seen is that in the race, if anything, McLaren seemed to have retained from last year the characteristic of being consistent on the tyres. Probably a little bit more than some of our competitors.
“While I think the main advantage of Mercedes on us is pure pace. Like their car is just a couple of tenths faster than our car.
“So this means that when the things are so close, when you have four teams in such a tight competition, execution, adaptation, optimisation, they can become the decisive factor.
“And while we have had a very positive weekend, I think today in the race we might have lost the possibility to win it. Again, for a matter of execution and optimisation of what was available.
“We were fighting a faster car than us, but perhaps if we had kept Lando in the lead, we could have led it to the finish.”
McLaren lost a potential victory
While Mercedes did hold a very small advantage on race day, a win could have been possible if everything was executed correctly by McLaren. Norris had been maintaining a gap to Antonelli on mediums, albeit car #12 was very slowly closing as the stint went on.
The Italian engineer turned boss went into detail on what went wrong, while also taking huge encouragement from the points scored and upgrades to come for the F1 Canadian GP.
“We feel extremely satisfied with the weekend, very encouraged. Not only because in a single weekend we scored more points than the three previous races, but also because of the trend that we have established.
“We know that we have some more upgrades coming, which are kind of coming from the same group. So we are optimistic that they may allow us to take some further steps forward.
“But at the same time, in addition to this positive general picture, if we go into the specifics of the race, when you are in the lead, and you are in condition to retain the lead, like Lando was today in the first stint, then you definitely have a chance to win it.”
Pit stop timing was wrong
“I think the timing of the pit stop was the decisive factor. But at the same time, we should be careful that we don’t only see it from a strategic point of view. Because you have the timing of the pit stop, which is a strategic element.
“But then we lost time in pit lane, for instance, which is an execution aspect. It is a combination of the driver stopping, the pit stop itself, and then we have the in-lap. And we lost some time in the in-lap as well.
“So it should not be confused with a strategic element. It is always a team element.
“And as a team, we have done a great job in making McLaren competitive again for the win. And as a team, probably today we didn’t capitalise. But as a team, we shouldn’t forget that we were competing with a faster car than us.”
Various reasons cost McLaren the lead through the pit stop phase at the 2026 F1 Miami GP
With the aforementioned reasons as to why Lando Norris lost the lead through the pit cycle for the top 2 on laps 26 and 27, it was put to Stella after the 2026 F1 Miami GP whether anything could have been done to stop Antonelli making the move.
As Lando Norris came out on the pits following that 3.7s stop, he was side-by-side with the current championship leader. Antonelli took the position heading into turn 4.
After the race, the 2025 F1 World Champion lamented the fact he was not boxed first.
“I think with the hard tyres, it is very difficult to… Even if Lando was ahead at the pit exit, Antonelli is coming with the tyres hot. He is on his ideal racing line. So I don’t think there was anything we could have done.
“We just should have put Lando much further ahead. Probably 7 tenths of a second, let’s say. And this would have given him the possibility to retain the position.
“So I think once we saw that the pit stop wasn’t perfect, we lost time in pit lane, like I said before. We saw in the in-lap Lando had a couple of moments, so we knew the in-lap was not going to be very good. We knew that with Antonelli coming with hot tyres, it would have been very difficult.
“So it’s a combination of factors that compounded.”
