Another podium, and a victory
Lando Norris’s victory in the Dutch Grand Prix equals the eleventh consecutive podium for the McLaren this season, which with the English driver, or with teammate Oscar Piastri, has occupied a top-3 position since Shanghai. A result that, combined with Red Bull’s failure to win in five races, allows the Woking-based manufacturer to further close the gap on its rivals in the Constructors’ standings, with a 30-point deficit with nine races to go in the championship.
Constant growth
McLaren’s comeback and constant improvements seem to know no end, much to the delight of the Team Principal Andrea Star: “It was a very positive weekend, in some ways. beyond our expectations – he commented on Sky Sports F1 – we knew that the updates would bring some lap time and that this track is a bit in the Barcelona-Hungary class, where we had performed well in the past, but yesterday’s performance in qualifying and today’s race was above expectations, which is a good way to be surprised. Added to this is the Lando’s performancewhich was amazing all weekend. He always maintained control, maximizing the material he had available. In the race he remained patient even after losing position at the start, regaining it with an overtaking. There will be many proofs of maturity during his career. The growth trend, also for Lando, is very consistent, and he fully demonstrated it”.
The problem of departure
Norris, who once again risked losing the lead in the race in what has now become his Achilles heel, that is, the departure. A problem that also recurred in Zandvoort, on a weekend in which Stella spoke with his driver, recalling what was the mistake of a F1 legend: “Lando is always very critical of himself – he added – when he looks back on this season he will see those two or three times where he could have done better. This weekend we discussed with him the Michael Schumacher’s period when he won the 6th title. In Japan he had a completely unforeseen incident with Sato where he lost his front wing. It was an opportunity to improve for someone who was winning his 6th title. What makes the difference is the attitude towards these opportunities, the mentality to try to improve at every single opportunity.“.
Piastri’s missed podium
McLaren could have potentially finished the Dutch GP with both drivers on the podium, but the race ended instead with Oscar Piastri finishing 4th and Charles Leclerc surprisingly finishing in the top three: “The podium with Oscar today was definitely possiblecertainly from a performance point of view – he concluded – we lost the chance of the podium certainly at the start by losing the position, and then in Ferrari they were good at making an undercut with Leclerc. I have to say that we were not very convinced about preventing the undercut because we did not want to start the pit stop sequence and put Lando under pressure, so Ferrari did well to gain the position on Oscar and maintain it. We thought we could overtake with a tyre delta of 10 laps, but it was not possible, however we are encouraged by the performance and we look to the next races with optimism also with regards to Oscar”.
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