McLaren boss Andrea Stella has commended the adaptive race management that saw Lando Norris almost take the win in the Formula 1 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Norris qualified less than a tenth behind polesitter Max Verstappen, but he could not maintain pace with the Red Bull and dropped eight seconds back in the first stint.
However, Norris overcame a tentative start to his closing stretch on the Hard compound later in proceedings to start reeling in a struggling Verstappen at a rapid rate.
The Briton would come up seven-tenths short from pipping the Dutchman to a second consecutive victory, arguing that he needed “one or two more laps” to overtake.
Nevertheless, Stella has lavished praise on how Norris recognised the issue that had limited his earlier pace and altered his approach to be in better shape at the end.
“I think it was an interesting race because the tyres were able to operate in a narrow window and before the combination of driver, track characteristics and where you were losing the tyres created different characteristics from a competitive point of view,” Stella explained.
“The first stint Max seemed to be in control and we needed to look in the mirrors with Lando, and Oscar [Piastri] was actually putting quite a lot of pressure on Carlos [Sainz].
“Second stint, Lando took care of his tyres at the start of the stint because we saw with the Medium that it was not going to be an easy run to the end on Hard tyres.
“And also we saw that people that used hard tyres in the first stint, like [Sergio] Perez, were not very brilliant.
“So it was very tactical from this point of view, and I think Lando did a good job for saving tyres for a long part of the second stint and that left him with a good budget towards the end.”
Norris conceded that McLaren “paid the price” in having set up the MCL38 car to suit the expected cooler conditions, prompting him to struggle with rear degradation.
Stella has explained how the narrow operating window with tyre temperature had an overriding bearing on car performance and the closing chase Norris could mount.
“I don’t think the fuel level was the main factor, I think the main factor was the temperature at which you could get your tyres to operate,” Stella assessed.
“It looked today that if you take your tyres to too high a temperature then the drop off was quite significant.
“There was a little bit of a cliff and you lose quite a lot of performance.
“I think for us, the tyres at the start of the race were too hot and we were losing ground to Verstappen, but in the second stint, especially Lando, he managed to control the pace while the tyres were newer. The newer they are, the easier they get hotter, in a way, so there I think he was very patient not to overcook it and have decent performance at the end.”
