In the 20th of 52 race laps, the hearts of McLaren fans beat faster at the 2024 British GP. In the mixed conditions, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri showed the best pace and took the double lead from Mercedes. At the finish, however, Norris and Piastri only remained in third and fourth positions.
Both drivers made mistakes in their strategy department. While Norris switched to slicks too late and switched to the wrong tire compound, Piastri’s chances of victory were gone much earlier. Ironically, it was Piastri’s strong pace that was responsible for this. When it was time to change tires from slicks to intermediates on lap 27, the Australian was not even a second behind Norris.
Piastri has no chance after pit stop faux pas
In view of this, McLaren, unlike the two Mercedes directly behind it, decided not to make a double stop. A mistake with serious consequences: the track was now so wet that the leaders almost caught up with Piastri within just one lap. After his pit stop, Piastri only returned to the track in sixth place – more than 18 seconds behind Norris.
Afterwards, Piastri benefited from the loss of George Russell, when switching back to slicks, overtook Carlos Sainz with an undercut and put in a strong final stint on mediums, but had nothing more to do with the fight for victory. In the end, Piastri crossed the finish line 12.429 seconds behind winner Lewis Hamilton.
Piastri disappointed: Could have won
“Lando and I probably both feel that we could have won,” said Piastri, disappointed after the race. “We had a very fast car in all conditions. When it started to rain, we were flying. On my side, we obviously just stayed out on slicks for one lap too long and that unfortunately put us way back. So it’s a bit painful to look back at how close we were to winning.”
Piastri continued that he was OK with the decision, but the bitter reality set in pretty quickly. “As soon as I passed the pit lane exit, I knew I was in trouble,” said Piastri. “We had a small shower before that and managed to stay out. We kind of thought we could do something similar. Unfortunately, it didn’t pay off today.”
Zak Brown: Thought we would lose more by double stopping
“You never know how bad the track will be,” McLaren CEO Zak Brown Piastri agreed afterwards at the ORF microphone. “We thought we would cost Oscar five seconds with a double stop. But it turned out that we lost more than five seconds by staying out. But you really don’t know that in the middle of the rain.”
Nevertheless, Brown was not satisfied with the end result. “We had two drivers who could have won,” said the American soberly. “On the positive side, we gained points on our competitors. But in retrospect, we made too many mistakes.”
Andrea Stella complains: Were too greedy
“We were a bit greedy,” agreed McLaren team boss Andrea Stella. “We didn’t want to accept that we would have lost time if we had done a double stop. But effectively, sometimes you just have to be patient and accept that you’re going to lose time, but just do the right thing, rather than hoping that one more lap won’t cost so much.”
Although Piastri himself did not necessarily express himself positively on the radio about a possible double stop, Stella did not see any fault on the part of his driver. “We should have pushed harder for a double stop,” said the Italian, who also saw the team as responsible here. “We should have simply forced Oscar to say: ‘Sorry, it will be a double stop.'”
Stella defends Piastri
Although the general rule in Formula 1 is that the driver is the best judge of when the track is too wet for slicks, Stella believes that this responsibility should not rest entirely on the pilot’s shoulders: “The driver drives. We ask too much of the drivers when we say: ‘Drive well, keep the car on the track on dry tires in wet conditions. And by the way, do the whole timing thing.'”
Stella warns: Still a construction site
Nevertheless, Stella admitted that there was still room for improvement and announced an investigation. At the same time, the 53-year-old urged patience and reminded everyone that the battle at the top is relatively new for McLaren compared to the other teams in the recent past. “So we are still more of a work in progress and we accept these narrow failures. The frustration will quickly fade, but the next opportunity will come soon. So we have to be ready,” said Stella.
At least in terms of pace, McLaren was once again able to impress in Silverstone, although Stella also called for restraint on this point. “There is this narrative that the McLaren is the best car,” Stella began. “But we saw today that we are not necessarily the fastest car. Because in the first stint, when things were pretty regular, Mercedes drove away.”
Unlike McLaren, Mercedes did not make any major strategic mistakes at Silverstone and was thus able to celebrate its second victory in a row. For Lewis Hamilton, it was even his first victory in Formula 1 since December 2021 at his Silverstone farewell performance with Mercedes. You can read all the details about the record world champion’s race here: