McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella analysed a weekend of promise that ultimately had a sting in the tail for Lando Norris at the 2026 F1 Spanish GP.
Struggling to match Mercedes and Ferrari in practice through Friday and into Saturday, the team worked hard on the MCL40 to get it into a window to allow the drivers to attack the kerbs and have better performance in the low-speed.
In qualifying, the defending World Champion took pole following an absolutely stunning lap. Even the Italian engineer was taken aback by what the Brit achieved.
Having missed FP2 with a gearbox problem, Lando Norris had no long running data. In the race, you would not have noticed. He was over 6s clear of Kimi Antonelli and 12s to Max Verstappen when the VSC on lap 14 completely turned the race on its head. The Brit had just tackled the final corner as the race was neutralised. To rub it in, it went green as he was close to the pits on the next lap.
Rejoining in a net P3, the victory hopes for Norris and McLaren went as overtaking is impossible at the Madring circuit. On a hugely positive note, the defending World Champion was unbelievably fast on both medium and hard tyres.
Andrea Stella on the misfortune and Lando Norris not continuing on used mediums in 2026 F1 Spanish GP
Speaking in his print media session after the race, the McLaren F1 boss took the positives from the mega pace his 26-year-old driver had.
Regarding not staying out, the hard tyre proved to be very fast and durable also. That is why Stella believes Norris had no chance of doing anything in terms of pace and trying to pull out a gap on 15-lap mediums.
“I just want to mention that Lando said in the in-lap that today we were too fast, because we were at least a couple of seconds ahead of where we should have been to win the race, which is a paradox, obviously.
“And it’s very good news. Like, there’s a lot of positive we take from this day. We will carry this performance into the future races.
“When it comes to the racing itself, it was a shame with the start of the Virtual Safety Car and the timing. But it was also a shame with the end of the Virtual Safety Car and the fact that we then pitted without gaining the time that you can gain under the Virtual Safety Car.
“We considered staying out. But you have to accept the fact that now you are on relatively used medium tyres and the people behind you will be on new hard. So you’re never going to open a gap on people on a new hard.
“Therefore, we kind of needed to accept that that was what we should have done. And the fact that it was incredibly unfortunate.”
Plain bad luck
“You know, sometimes we talk about being unlucky. I think at times that being unlucky is used for too many applications. But in this case, it’s almost a mathematical definition of being unlucky.
“So we are happy that what we could control was good. And we take on the chin that what we could not control just played against us.”
Another slow pit stop
Over the past couple of seasons, the McLaren team has faced quite a few slow stops of above three seconds. On Sunday, Lando Norris was in the box for a full seven seconds, losing him a good 4.5s. While it did not cost him any positions, it is an area McLaren must improve urgently. Oscar Piastri lost track position to George Russell at Zandvoort because of a slow one recently as well.
Speaking after the 2026 F1 Spanish GP, Andrea Stella conceded it is an area McLaren has to work on and improve.
“But in fairness and for completeness, we have a seven-second pitstop. So there’s definitely takeaways, even when it comes to our operations.
“I’m leaving this element at the end, just because it would have not made a difference for the final result, because probably Lando would have rejoined anyhow behind Russell. And even if not, it would have not been possible to overtake Verstappen and Antonelli.
“So definitely, we take note that there’s a lot of work to do in our operation. And it’s not the first time that we have a slow stop.
“But in terms of the race itself, it didn’t make a difference.”
Tyre management in the first stint of the F1 Spanish GP
Following Friday running, teams feared graining and deg could lead to multiple stops per car in the race. As the track rubbered in, those worries were reduced significantly, although graining was still a factor.
Norris and Antonelli started on mediums. The World Champion was consistently quicker in the first stint as the McLaren was better on its tyres. Despite managing more through turn 12, Car #12 was still graining harder.
Nonetheless, as Lando Norris had some graining, Andrea Stella felt McLaren had no choice but to pit when they did in the 2026 F1 Spanish GP.
“The tyres, they did need a little bit of management.
“Among the positives today, we were witnessing that the car wasn’t having big problems, especially with Lando.
“So I think not only we were able to improve the car from a pure performance point of view, but also in terms of tyre management. And Lando wasn’t managing very much.
“Despite that, the graining had already started on the front left. And this is also one of the reasons why we needed to do pit.
“I think some competitors behind us, we saw that they were managing more. Like you could see that Antonelli was losing time in the second sector. I think this was the management.”
