A rollercoaster weekend for McLaren in Miami, where the team went from scoring a dominant Sprint double to struggling in qualifying for the main race just a few hours later. In the only free practice session, the Woking-based team immediately found the right window to make the upgrades work and achieve the correct balance, something their rivals took longer to accomplish. Thanks to this, Lando Norris was able to secure pole position for the Sprint, while Oscar Piastri started from third on the grid.
In the Sprint race, McLaren looked like the dominant version seen last year, opening a gap that proved impossible for the chasing pack to close. However, the situation changed in qualifying for the main race, when track conditions shifted and wind intensity increased significantly. Norris finished the session in fourth place, while Piastri could only manage seventh.
At the end of Saturday in Miami, team principal Andrea Stella commented on the situation, acknowledging that rivals had done a better job adapting to the changing conditions, but also highlighting the positive impact of McLaren’s upgrades.
Stella: “The upgrades worked well”
That the upgrades introduced in Florida were working had already been clear on Friday, when Norris secured his first pole position of the season, albeit for the Sprint race. On the other side of the garage, there were also positive signs, with Oscar Piastri lining up in third place.
In the Sprint, both papaya drivers looked like their 2024 selves again: after an impeccable start, they pulled away from the field and controlled the race to the finish without taking unnecessary risks, with Norris leading home Oscar Piastri for the team’s first double podium of the season.
A few hours later, however, the picture changed completely. In qualifying for the main race, Norris could do no better than fourth, while Oscar Piastri had to settle for seventh.
Team principal Andrea Stella spoke about an improvement from the competitors, while still pointing out several factors that affected McLaren’s performance. The Woking team had found a strong balance already during Friday’s sole free practice session, while rivals took longer to reach optimal performance.
“We saw four teams separated by just a few tenths. Mercedes probably still has an advantage; in Sprint qualifying, pole position could have gone to Antonelli, Leclerc, one of our two drivers, or Verstappen. The margins are very small, and the difference comes down to execution, optimisation, and adaptation to conditions. Overall, it is still a positive day for McLaren, because we saw that the upgrades worked well,” Stella explained.
The Woking squad is not the only team to have introduced significant and effective upgrades this weekend:
“We saw the largest number of updates on Ferrari, followed by Red Bull and McLaren. As already mentioned, we will bring further upgrades in Canada, and that is an encouraging aspect,” he added.
Stella: “We managed an unusual power unit behaviour”
According to Stella, the difficulties experienced by his drivers in qualifying — but not in the Sprint — are related to adaptation issues. Norris and Piastri lost several tenths between Sprint qualifying and main qualifying, struggling in the high-speed ‘snake’ section, one of their weaker areas, while also failing to improve in the low-speed corners.
“We had no particular issues in Sprint qualifying, while in main qualifying we had to manage a non-optimal behaviour of the power unit. These are not real problems, but rather an adaptation to conditions: it affects both lap time and the drivers’ reference points,” the former Ferrari race engineer said.
On top of the unusual power unit behaviour, wind intensity increased ahead of qualifying, exposing a weakness of the MCL40: excessive drag. “We have to accept that this kind of power unit sensitivity is something we are not used to, probably something never seen before in Formula 1. In qualifying, for example, wind affected some settings: the time spent on the straight changed, and optimisation tools adapted to the conditions. It creates a sort of chase between tools and external variables, which makes everything very complex.
Some factors that were marginal on Friday became relevant in Grand Prix qualifying, and every variation affects the entire system. It is not only about where energy is deployed, but also how it interacts with other elements, including the internal combustion side,” he concluded.
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