The decision to run Lando Norris on hard tyres during the second stint of the Belgian Grand Prix was a mistake, according to McLaren boss Andrea Stella.
Having started sixth on the grid, Norris plummeted down the order in the opening stages.
That prompted some to question whether the Englishman was struggling with an issue with his car, only for the team to confirm that it was an inability to get the tyre working that was blighting his pace.
However, a switch to the soft tyres for the last stint, and some clear air to go with it, saw Norris climb back up the order to deliver a seventh-place finish.
“The goal was to get Lando out of the cars around him, give him some free air, and try to go long to then finish on a soft tyre,” Stella explained of the team’s original strategy.
“But I have to admit that our judgement on the grip of the hard tyres was incorrect; the tyres didn’t have much grip at all and Lando found himself again in the mix of the other cars.”
Heading into the race, McLaren had identified two areas where it was vulnerable.
While fast through the middle third of the lap, both Norris and Oscar Piastri were down on straight-line speed, leaving them exposed at the race start and any Safety Car restarts.
An extension was that overtaking was difficult as getting into the slipstream from La Source and through Eau Rouge/Raidillon was difficult.
Running in traffic also led to increased tyre degradation, which sent Norris into a negative performance spiral.
“Luckily, the race gave us the opportunity to rectify the situation,” said Stella.
“By going on soft very early, we kind of timed the going on soft with the rain.
“Timing this onto the soft tyres allowed Lando to recover a massive amount of time when anybody else that was out there on used tyres, and they needed to be much more careful.”
Knowing what it does now, Stella suggested McLaren would not have run the hard compound rubber.
“Based on what we know now, definitely we could have worked on, I would say, three things,” he noted when asked what the team could have done differently over the weekend.
“Possibly trying to shed some more drag, even at the cost of some efficiency.
“Then you have information to optimise your ride heights because you need to be conservative once you don’t have any reference.
“And then the third element will be we would know quite a bit more about the tyres, and I think we would stay away from the hard tyres in the race if we could do that again.”
While Norris finished seventh, Piastri was an opening lap retirement after he tangled with Carlos Sainz at the opening corner.
Pinching against the apex wall at La Source, the Australian sustained damage that curtailed his race and ended a promising weekend.
“It looks like the steering system is broken,” Stella confirmed when asked by Speedcafe post-race about the damage.
“I actually haven’t checked myself if it’s outboard or inboard, but it’s broken and obviously there was no way to continue.
“I briefly took a look with Oscar at the incident and it looks like, to be honest, Carlos either didn’t know that Oscar was there or, because he needed to avoid the car ahead, just drove into Oscar, and there was a wall, the limit in the space available.”
While Sainz pinned the blame for the clash on Piastri, the Australian suggested it was a racing incident – a point the stewards appeared to agree with given no penalties were forthcoming.
“I think there is no point in arguing about one millimetre more or less; we trust [the FIA], we trust their judgement,” Stella added.
“It doesn’t change the outcome, Carlos got this damage as well, he needed to retire, so a bit of learning for everyone and we move on.”
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