Andrea Stella, the McLaren team principal, has vowed that the team will hold a “very thorough” review over its “significantly penalising” strategy mistake at the Qatar Grand Prix.
And he has acknowledged that there may have been “a certain bias” in the team’s decision to keep both Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris out behind the safety car.
McLaren to hold ‘very thorough’ review over ‘significant’ Qatar Grand Prix error
McLaren arrived in Qatar on the verge of securing its first drivers’ title since 2008, with Norris holding a 24-point lead over both teammate Piastri and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen
However, Norris’s lead has been cut to just 12 points ahead of this weekend’s title-deciding Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after Verstappen collected his seventh victory of the F1 2025 season at Lusail.
McLaren opted against pitting Piastri and Norris – running first and third respectively – when the safety car was deployed on Lap 7.
Verstappen took advantage of a free pit stop, along with every other driver in the field, with both McLarens staying out.
Piastri and Norris were therefore forced to carry out their two mandatory pit stops at racing speed, losing valuable time to Verstappen.
While Piastri managed to recover to second place, Norris could only manage fourth.
Sunday’s race if McLaren had effectively given 25 seconds away to Verstappen by deciding against pitting its drivers, Stella said: “I think, in terms of the outcome of the decision, that’s a fair interpretation.
Obviously, we did it for a reason. The reason was that we didn’t want to end up in traffic after the pit stop, but obviously all the other cars and teams had a different opinion in relation to a safety car on Lap 7.
“Everyone pitted and this made our staying out ultimately incorrect from a race outcome point of view.
“And like I say, because Verstappen was fast, and also because the tyre degradation was low, ultimately this decision was significantly penalising because clearly Oscar was in control of the race and deserved to win it and we lost the podium as well with Lando.”
McLaren’s strategy error came just seven days after Norris and Piastri were disqualified from the Las Vegas Grand Prix for excessive skid-block wear.
The Woking-based team published its findings from a post-race investigationahead of the Qatar race weekend with Stella confirming “the unexpected occurrence of extensive porpoising” was “the specific cause” that led to McLaren’s double disqualification.
Stella has revealed that McLaren will hold another review to get to the bottom of the team’s misjudgement in Qatar, indicating that certain “biases” related to how other teams would approach the safety car period may have played a role in the strategic decision.
And the former Ferrari engineer pointed to the success of Michael Schumacher, the seven-time world champion, as proof that teams must overcome obstacles on the route to success.
He said: “I think in terms of the misjudgement, it’s something that we will have to review, discussing internally.
“We’ll have to assess some factors like, for instance, whether there was a certain bias in the way we were thinking that led us as a group to think that not all cars necessarily would have pitted.
“There are sometimes some objective and sometimes there’s some biases, objective reasons. Sometimes there may be some biases in the way you think.
“We will have to go through the review in a very thorough way, but what’s important is that we do it as usual, in a way that is constructive is analytical.
“I think already after Vegas, we have had the possibility and I was very proud of the team to see how strong the no-blame culture is at McLaren, how much our culture is a culture of progress, is a culture of continuous improvements.
“Racing is tough. Racing may give you tough lessons, but this is the history of champions.
“I worked with Michael Schumacher, we won several titles together.
“We all think about the titles now, but after Vegas, I was thinking how much pain he had to go through, for instance, when Michael started his experience at Ferrari.
“This is just the history of Formula 1. This is the true nature of racing.
“We are disappointed, but we are if anything, as soon as we start the review, we will get even more determined to learn from our lessons, adapt and be stronger as a team and make sure that this phenomenal, beautiful opportunity that we have to compete for the drivers’ championship – and be the ones that actually stop Verstappen’s dominance in this period of Formula 1 – we want to face it as the best of ourselves.
“So I’m looking forward to the next race and I’m looking forward to see a strong reaction from our team.”
Asked why McLaren is making so many errors currently, Stella claimed the “very tight” competition – combined the “spotlight” of the title battle – have “exposed” the team’s issues.
He said: “I think, in a season as long as this, you can have various phases.
“I think we have seen this with the drivers. We have seen this in terms of momentum of the various teams.
“And in a way, even in terms of execution, you may have an accumulation of issues just in a given period which make it look like: ‘Oh, what’s happening now?’
“In reality, I think there’s no specific reasons.
“The issue we had in Vegas is very, very different to the issue we have here obviously.
“I don’t think there’s any specific reason. It’s just a reminder that, in racing, you have to be in control of all the possible details.
“I think what’s happening is that the tighter the competition is, the more you are in the spotlight, the more issues are exposed.
