Andrea Stella: “We were surprised by Red Bull’s pace. In Imola, you need brains, not just speed”. Andrea Stella reflects on Red Bull’s surprising pace at Imola.

A race decided at the start?
Clear-headed, calm, analytical. Andrea Stella doesn’t lose his strong analytical approach, even in a weekend that ends with some regrets for McLaren: for the second time this season, the papaya team did not win and had to bow to Max Verstappen, who finished first with the RB21 ahead of the two Woking drivers, with Lando Norris second and Oscar Piastri – who had taken pole position yesterday – only third. The first setback in the championship leader’s race came at the very first corner, when Oscar Piastri was caught out by an incredible move from Verstappen, who entered Tamburello practically in third and exited it in the lead.

What a pace from Red Bull
Speaking to Sky Sport F1 about it, Stella dismissed the idea that Piastri had been too soft and instead gave credit to Max Verstappen and Red Bull for their performance today at the Santerno circuit: “At Imola, you have to be careful when trying to attack or resist until the last millimeter,” explained Stella, “because the consequences are much more severe than what can happen in Saudi Arabia or Miami, where you have asphalt run-off areas. You have to race with your head. What actually surprised us a bit is that Red Bull had a race pace today that was at least as competitive as ours. So, while in some races you might afford not to fight to the last inch and then make up for it using your car’s pace later in the race, here we didn’t have enough pace to recover. Congratulations to Red Bull, they were fast, and kudos to Max. We tried in many ways, but none of them were enough to beat them.”

Updates on the way
Stella also candidly admitted that McLaren was lucky at the end of the race with the Safety Car: “The Safety Car reset the gap and gave us the chance to attack, but in reality, we didn’t have the pace to do so. Even when Lando managed to pass Oscar after the restart, Max continued to set very competitive laps. Passing Max on track today was impossible, so I wouldn’t call it bad luck, but rather competitiveness.” – the McLaren boss pointed out at the end of the Imola Grand Prix.

Regarding this, the Italian team principal, as he already mentioned yesterday, announced important updates for the MCL39: “We’re working to increase our competitiveness,” he reiterated, “and we want to bring new developments to the track. Red Bull brought updates to this race and will bring more to the next, Aston Martin brought updates too, so no one is standing still. We have to get there as well: it’ll take a few more races to get some important new parts. The championship? As always, we’re working to make it boring,” Andrea Stella joked, “but we’re not good enough yet.”