McLaren boss Andrea Stella believes Max Verstappen’s clash with Oscar Piastri in Formula 1‘s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was “unnecessary” when the title was on the line.
Piastri lined up alongside McLaren team-mate Lando Norris on the front row, but he was sent to the back when Verstappen pitched him into a spin on the opening lap.
Verstappen had nailed the launch to cruise past Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and spied an opening on Piastri’s inside at Turn 1 which ended with the two colliding on the exit.
The stewards held Verstappen accountable and gave him a 10-second penalty, but that provided little consolation to Piastri as he recovered to an eventual 10th place.
Piastri’s absence at the sharp end threatened to have pressing ramifications on McLaren as the pressure rose on Norris to protect the side’s 21-point lead over Ferrari.
Stella claimed that Verstappen’s ambitious dive on Piastri was needless considering the risks involved with the championship situation still being alive at the last race.
“The first thought I had after checking corner one is that it felt unnecessary,” Stella told media including Motorsport Week at the Yas Marina Circuit.
“When you have teams fighting for the championship, it’s the pinnacle, it’s the time to harvest the efforts of a season, that felt a little unnecessary.”
Stella commended how both his drivers dealt with the respective positions they were placed in to ensure that the Woking-based squad edged out Ferrari by 14 points.
“Sometimes adversities give you the opportunity to show your strengths and I think that’s exactly what happened today,” he continued.
“First of all because Oscar never gave up and he came back to scoring a point that could have been very important.
“If not the two points that could have been decisive even in case of a swap between Carlos and Lando.
“Lando showed his strengths delivering a perfect weekend and a perfect race when all the pressure was on him and he stayed very calm on the radio.
“He considered some difficult options that we gave him like when we said, ‘would you pit in case of Safety Car or not for a new set’.
“So, I think we saw Lando at his best and his best is just incredibly competitive.
“I can’t wait to see Lando and Oscar in the future with a competitive car right from race one.”
Stella praises McLaren pit crew
Stella also lavished praise on the lightning two-second pitstop McLaren delivered that allowed Norris to retain his lead once Ferrari attempted an undercut with Sainz.
“For me if anything the opportunity to show the strengths was in the last pitstop,” he highlighted. “The whole season was in the last pitstop.
“A problem at the pitstop and we could have lost the position to Carlos and we could have lost the championship.
“The guys delivered what I think is one of the best pitstops of the season, confirming the trajectory which was not only car performance, but was the overall maturity, mentality, [and] emotional resilience of the entire team.
“So, all this somehow was given the opportunity to be shown thanks to the accident in corner one.”
McLaren eager to avoid season finale variables
But Stella has challenged McLaren to assemble an even more competitive successor to the MCL38 to ward against external variables imposing a detrimental impact.
“Hopefully in the future, we don’t need adversities,” he stated.
“And we can have just a faster car and we can be just safer and not be in a decisive race at the last races of the season.”
READ MORE – Lando Norris had faith he could deliver McLaren F1 title when Oscar Piastri was span round
