McLaren endured a difficult 2025 F1 Qatar GP after going in a different strategic avenue to the rest of the grid in the early safety car on lap 7, when basically the entire field piled into the pits for a new set of tyres, and only the two papaya cars stayed out.
That meant they had to make an extra stop under green flag conditions compared to their direct rivals – notably Max Verstappen for Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz for Lando Norris, both of which gained a place thanks to McLaren’s blunder.
Piastri tried an alternative strategy, and instead of getting the full 25-lap use from his second set of tyres, stopped on lap 42 to try and catch back up to Verstappen in the final 15 laps, but to no avail.
Norris, on the other hand, stopped at the end of lap 44 and had to overtake Kimi Antonelli and Carlos Sainz on track to regain his podium position. In the end, he was only able to get past the former, as the Mercedes driver made a mistake exiting turn 10 and gave fourth place back to Norris, who was unable to overtake Sainz in the battle for third.
Stella explains why McLaren “didn’t expect” everyone else to pit
Speaking to Sky Sports after the race, McLaren F1 team principal Andrea Stella revealed the team simply “didn’t expect” all their rivals to pit at the first available opportunity on lap 7.
Stella admitted it wasn’t due to bad timing or a lack of opportunity to pit, and instead a conscious decision to stay out with both cars, that turned out to be “wasn’t the correct” one:
“It was a decision, it was a decision not to pit,” he said. “And in fairness we didn’t expect everyone else to pit.
“Obviously once everyone else behind you pits, then it makes it a big thing like ‘definitely [it’s] the right thing to do.’
“When you are the lead car, you don’t know exactly what the others are going to do; there could have been a loss for Lando [Norris] pitting in case we were pitting both cars, with the double stack.
“But effectively the main reason was related to not expecting everyone else to pit, so it was a decision.
“But as a matter of fact, it wasn’t the correct decision.”
The explanation behind the “flexibility” mentioned over the radio
Immediately after realising McLaren’s strategy blunder at the F1 Qatar GP, Norris said over the radio that they “probably” should have followed Verstappen into the pits.
But he was reassured by his race engineer Will Joseph that Verstappen and the others had lost “all flexibility” on strategy for the remainder of the race.
When asked to clarify that comment, Stella said that such was the prescribed nature of pitting on lap 7, then on lap 32 and getting to the end from there, it would take away that flexibility from their rivals, should another safety car have come out at any point.
“The flexibility was relating to any other safety car, which would have put us in a very strong position,” he explained. “That’s the flexibility that Will [Joseph] was referring to.
“For all the others pitting at lap seven, the strategy was kind of prescribed [25 lap stints on laps] 7, 32 and 57.
“But as a matter of fact, it worked very well for everyone stopping at lap seven, so ultimately that’s what it is.
“We thought that the pace in the car also could have allowed us anyhow to open enough of a gap,” he said. “But again, there wasn’t much tyre degradation, and therefore we couldn’t exploit entirely the the pace of the car.”
Timing of the safety car “not an excuse”
The safety car was called in as Piastri approached turn 10, with Norris a further six seconds back from the Australian.
Although it didn’t give the team much time to react and prepare for a pit stop that wasn’t planned, as Piastri and Norris only passed through the pit entrance once before catching the safety car, Stella believes that is “not an excuse” for failing to adhere the correct strategy:
“In fairness, you need to have a plan for the safety car to happen at whatever moment in a lap.
“Obviously when it’s so late it doesn’t even give you the possibility to check what’s happening in pit lane, what the plan of the others, [but] honestly not an excuse.
“Whatever happens in the lap, you need to be ready to make the right decision.”
Learning to do ahead of “decisive” final race in Abu Dhabi
Stella didn’t hide his frustration at a “disappointing result” for McLaren at the Qatar GP, as both drivers lost a significant result through no fault of their own for a second succesive weekend, following on from their double disqualification at last week’s Las Vegas F1 GP.
“It’s a disappointing result, overall,” he lamented. “We were in condition we had the potential to win the race with Oscar [Piastri], [and] certainly he deserved that – he was fastest yesterday in qualifying, in the sprint.
“And then certainly the podium was available for Lando, but we lost the victory with Oscar, and we lost the podium with Lando, so definitely not the outcome that we wanted.
“As usual, we will learn from racing and we will get stronger for the next event, which obviously becomes now decisive and even more important.”
