Oscar Piastri from Australia, driving the McLaren MCL38, made a pit stop during the Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 3, Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia, on 24.03.2024. On race day, McLaren explained their decision to pit Piastri before Lando Norris in an attempt to get him ahead of Charles Leclerc.
At the time of the pit stop, Norris was in second place on the track, two positions ahead of his teammate. McLaren made the strategic choice to pit Piastri first at the end of lap 9, giving him the opportunity to overtake Norris. Four laps later, Norris made his first pit stop, but Piastri’s earlier stop allowed him to quickly close the gap.
Although McLaren could have used team orders to move Norris ahead, the British driver argued that there were missed opportunities to beat Leclerc’s Ferrari and secure second place. Stella, a McLaren representative, clarified that the team decided to pit Piastri first, deviating from their usual protocol, to get both cars ahead of the Ferrari. However, Ferrari seemed to have heard McLaren’s radio communication and brought their driver in at the same time.
Norris mentioned that McLaren would need to review whether they could have used the undercut strategy on Leclerc during the second round of pit stops. Stella, in turn, defended the strategists from criticism, explaining that McLaren chose to delay Norris’s stops to maintain an advantage towards the end of the race. He also mentioned that the early stages of the race presented uncertainties about the performance of the hard tires, as they had not been extensively tested during practice.
“Non volevamo correre rischi inutili con Lando. In una gara con un significativo degrado delle gomme, di solito si recuperano posizioni alla fine”, ha aggiunto Stella. “Il motivo principale per cui non abbiamo avuto successo è stato perché la Ferrari era più veloce oggi, anche se la differenza non è stata significativa.”
Nella scorsa stagione, la McLaren ha utilizzato ordini di squadra per permettere al più veloce Norris di sorpassare Piastri in tre occasioni durante i Gran Premi di Ungheria, Italia e Giappone. Stella aveva precedentemente affermato che la McLaren avrebbe evitato di intervenire sempre che possibile, seguendo il loro successo con il doppio podio a Suzuka.
Norris ha dichiarato che avrebbe comunque sorpassato Piastri in pista, mentre Piastri stesso ha accettato che la decisione della squadra è stata presa nell’interesse del suo risultato complessivo.
