McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has responded to the recent pit stop difficulties affecting Lando Norris, who is currently trailing his teammate Oscar Piastri by 25 points in the drivers’ championship. The issues came to prominence during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend, where Norris struggled to gain positions after starting seventh.
While Piastri crashed out early in Baku, Norris was unable to improve his starting position and, notably, was again hampered by a slow pit stop in the McLaren garage. This follow-up to a similar problem at the previous race in Monza has raised concerns about the team’s efficiency during critical moments on track.
At Monza, Norris suffered a 5.9-second stop caused by a mechanic’s difficulty tightening his front-left tire, which allowed Piastri to temporarily overtake him. The problem recurred in Baku, where Norris experienced a 4.1-second pit stop, prolonging his time lost during the strategy phase. These issues became a major talking point surrounding McLaren’s recent performances.
Stella on Pit Stop Impact and Team Focus
Following the Baku race, Stella spoke to Sky Sports to downplay the direct effect of the pit stop delay on Norris’s final position. He stated,
“The pit stop itself didn’t make any difference because we would have ended up pretty much in the area of Leclerc,”
Andrea Stella explained.
“For me, the most important takeaway was that the car wasn’t fast enough. With a fast enough car, I think we would have been able to overtake and then have some free air and in free air actually use the full potential.”
Stella later clarified in a statement to the press that although the team is still analyzing the extent of the pit stop’s impact, improving stops remains a priority.
Image of: Lando Norris
“We still have to check whether, even with the fastest pit stop, we could have been ahead or not of a Ferrari,”
he said.
He emphasized that regaining lost track position was critical for both championship points and Norris’s campaign. Stella added,
“But as a matter of fact, we need to keep working because there’s some important performance that is available through pit stops. We have seen that the racing, if anything, is getting tighter and tighter, so the impact of a pit stop now gets more and more important.”
Ongoing Efforts to Enhance Pit Stop Efficiency
The repeated issues with pit stops are a source of frustration for McLaren and particularly concerning given the increasing competitiveness of Formula 1 races. The slow stops have hampered Norris’s ability to maximize his chances against rivals such as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and teammate Oscar Piastri, especially as every second lost in the pit lane translates into on-track setbacks.
As McLaren strives to narrow the gap in the drivers’ standings and improve race outcomes, addressing pit stop reliability and speed is deemed essential. The focus on this area will likely continue intensively in the upcoming races, with the team keen to prevent further mishaps that could hinder Norris’s championship ambitions.
