The Canadian Grand Prix proved to be quite challenging for the teams to navigate. The race started with wet conditions, but as the track began to dry, rain was expected later on. The introduction of two Safety Car periods, especially the first one, further mixed things up.
During the early stages of the race, as the track was drying, Norris quickly closed in on race leader George Russell and second-placed Max Verstappen. In fact, McLaren #4 soon took the lead. However, when the Safety Car was deployed to recover Logan Sargeant’s crashed Williams, Verstappen managed to overtake Norris for the lead. Norris made a pit stop one lap after the Safety Car entered.
Later on, when the teams switched to slick tires, McLaren made the mistake of keeping Norris on the track for one more lap. This meant that Verstappen, who had pitted earlier, had heated Medium tires while Norris exited the pits with cold tires.
Despite this, Stella, a McLaren representative, believes that the team actually exceeded expectations in Canada. He used the late pace of Mercedes to argue that Norris finishing ahead of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton was a decent result. Given the various unfolding situations, McLaren needed a significant pace advantage over Mercedes, which they did not have.
Stella stated to the press in Montreal last Sunday, quoted by Motorsport.com: “I think later in the race, things unfolded… Mercedes should have finished ahead of Lando. So, if anything, we maximized what was available after the safety car. Without the safety car, then I believe Lando could have built such a significant advantage that we could have tried to finish on dry tires. I believe Mercedes could have achieved it because they were slightly faster than us. We really needed a substantial advantage to safely reach the end. However, this is somewhat hypothetical because in a race like this, with two or three safety cars… you have to anticipate their occurrence, as well as unpredictable weather conditions. We knew the race would be determined by various situations and, ultimately, we are satisfied with the results,” Stella insisted.
