AUSTIN — The celebrations had begun at Ferrari’s hospitality space Sunday evening, as the Scuderia reveled in their one-two finish from Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr.
The mood at McLaren, however, was a little different.
While both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri finished in the points, Norris was unable to hold onto P1 into Turn 1 after the lights went out, opening the door for Leclerc to charge into the lead as Norris battled with Max Verstappen. Then as the two Drivers’ Championship rivals fought in the closing laps they veered off track, and the matter was sent to race officials for an investigation.
You can see the incident here:
While Norris overtook Verstappen in that exchange for P3, he was hit with a five-second penalty shortly before the checkered flag and ended up demoted to fourth, one place behind his rival in the title fight.
Speaking with the media, including SB Nation, in McLaren’s hospitality space Sunday evening McLaren Team Principal offered his view of the incident, in extensive form.
“I think the ahead of the apex, in relation to the interpretation of the overtaking maneuver is not the relevant bit. I think the defending car [Verstappen] goes just straight at the apex. We checked the video multiple times. It’s just going straight,” began Stella. “It’s just going off track as much as Lando is doing, just giving no chance for Lando to complete the maneuver.”
Stella then gave the assembled media a bit of a homework assignment, before continuing.
“If I were a journalist, I would have done a bit of statistics. ‘How many times Max has used this way for defending?’ Both cars go off track, so I think both cars are gaining an advantage if there’s an advantage gained. So for us, this maneuver was at the least neutral.”
When Norris spoke with the media, he emphasized a belief that race officials should take their time with such investigations, and speak with the involved parties before rendering a decision.
Stella was of a similar mind.
“When I saw that there was an under investigation, I was pretty sure that was because that Max pushed Lando off the track. And in fact, we told immediately Oscar, ‘make sure you close five seconds on Max because there could be a position at stake.’ So the interpretation of this situation between McLaren and the stewards is polar opposite,” began Stella.
“I am surprised that the stewards didn’t even feel the need to discuss with the drivers after the race. It is an uncertain situation. Get the opinion of the drivers, get the time to assess the situation with the level of details that is required when the situation is not so clear,” continued Stella. “So where is the urgency to interfere with the result of a race? With a championship? Just because you have to make the decision in 60 seconds? It’s a question mark that I think the stewards should take constructively. Positively.
“Is it really needed to make a decision so quickly, and in our opinion, so wrongly?”
Stella was then asked about the start of the race, which saw both Norris and Verstappen go wide and off the racing line, opening the door for Leclerc:
“Through goes the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc!”
Watch all the key action from a star-spangled race in Austin #F1 #USGP
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 20, 2024
Stella outlined how, while McLaren was certainly frustrated with that moment as well, they could understand race officials not taking any action, and terming it a “first-lap racing incident.”
We were a little upset by the maneuver in corner one because not only Max gained the position, but it cost the complete exit for Lando and therefore losing the positions on both Ferraris.
“At the same time. We sort of understood that the stewards might have applied the first lap mitigating circumstances, and we accepted it because we always have respect for the difficulties that the stewards operate under,” said Stealla. “But they should have respect for their job as well. And when the case is so difficult, like Lando and Max, just take the time, review it after the race, hear from the drivers, try to understand the subtleties.
“So I think the first lap first corner can be mitigated by the first lap interpretation.”
Stella was asked why they did not instruct Norris to give the position back during the late-stage incident, and remove the decision from the hands of race officials. This was something that Christian Horner raised during his media session moments later in the Red Bull hospitality space. But in Stella’s mind — as well as the entire operation at McLaren — there was no reason to, because the matter was clear.
“Because other people, and under my responsibility, but there was complete agreement by all the people involved in this interpretation,
this situation did not need to be investigated. And once we saw, and if anything, we thought the investigation should be for for Max pushing Lando off the track,” said Stella.
“And that’s what we thought was going to happen when we saw that the case was under investigation. So for us, there was no need to give back the position because of the situation. It is what I explained before.”
Stella then addressed the title fight that is shaping up between McLaren, Red Bull, and now Ferrari, who closed within eight points of second place Red Bull with the one-two finish.
“I think in terms of competitiveness there’s some multiple factors to consider,” began Stella. “When it comes to Ferrari, I’ve said that already during the weekend, they have been quick over the previous races pretty consistently. If anything, they have not been capable of maximizing their potential.
“I think in Baku Leclerc, in fairness, was definitely in condition to win the race. In Singapore, we were expecting Leclerc [to be] very competitive for pole position, and then it would have been the same in the race,” continued Stella. “So we are not surprised that Ferrari is so close, and then when we look at the characteristics of the circuit in particular because of the breaking into a very low speed and some very high-speed sections, we know that in these two situations, our car is not at the best of its performance.
“And, for instance, the very low speed and the very high speed is also the Red Bull are very good.
“So if we consider the Ferrari, they were already competitive, continued Stella. “If we consider the track layout, and if we consider that Red Bull had three weeks to look at data and think ‘What is going on with their car?’ and when we talk about Red Bull, a very competent group of engineers, then I’m not surprised that here in Austin, we kind of struggled.”
The McLaren boss then noted that Mexico City should prove more fertile ground for the team, while noting that McLaren has some more upgrades coming over the next two race weekends.
“I think the next circuit should be a little bit more suitable to the characteristics of our car,” said Stella. “We also have to keep developing the car. Like here, we put some developments at the front of the car, but there was nothing too large in terms of potential lap time impact.
We have a couple more things that are coming in the next two races.
We will see if we are in condition to the competitiveness of the car.”
Stella concluded with this thought.
“e wanted to make sure that what we bring track side [in terms of upgrades] is well-behaved, and we are quite encouraged and I have to say well done once again to our aerodynamic team, that the parts we took here, they worked as suspected and hopefully this will be the case also for the parts coming for Mexico and Brazil.”
With that, Stella departed for the night.
And the celebrations continued over at Ferrari.
