F1 | McLaren plays defense and misses out on front row, Norris errs again at the crucial moment
For the first time in 2025, there will be no MCL39 on the front row, but Montreal is not a track suited to the Woking car, so the race goal will be to “limit the damage.” After being faster than his teammate all weekend, Norris made a mistake in Q3, finishing only seventh. Oscar Piastri, on the other hand, will start third.
The real news from qualifying in Montreal is that for the first time this season, no McLaren will be on the front row. This is surprising considering the expectations before the weekend, but during the weekend only in the FP3 session did a papaya car (Lando Norris’s) top the timesheets. It seemed like a good sign heading into qualifying, but the track told a different story: Oscar Piastri will start third, Norris seventh. This result was also surprising, given that the championship leader appeared to struggle from the very first moments of FP1, including a brush with the “wall of champions” in FP3.
Beyond the car’s competitiveness, everything seemed set for a point in Norris’s favor, but at the crucial moment Lando faltered while Oscar emerged unexpectedly but convincingly. “After the difficulties in free practice, I can only be happy with third place,” Piastri explained. “Maybe we could have taken pole with the medium tires, but I preferred not to add more variables in a situation that wasn’t ideal, so I stuck to the plan we made before qualifying.”
Oscar Piastri’s slight smile (though he would never admit it) is partly linked to Norris’s collapse. “Lando was competitive all weekend,” commented Andrea Stella. “I was impressed when he got through Q2 using only used tires, so we were quite optimistic for Q3.” Then came the mistake, a small but crucial brush with the barriers. “It’s one of those cases where Lando tends to push too hard,” Andrea Stella explained. “The speed was there, but on this track if you push too much, you risk paying a high price—and that’s exactly what happened. He touched the wall, which was really a shame because until then his lap had been very fast, definitely in contention for pole position.”
It’s striking to see the two papaya cars in a different role than absolute favorites for the win; Stella even spoke of “a race where we’ll have to aim to limit the damage.” According to the team principal, the problem is solely related to the track characteristics. “The features of this circuit don’t suit our car,” he emphasized, “and at the same time, they suit Mercedes and Red Bull well.”
The MCL39 is especially efficient when the car can flow through mid-corner, but Montreal is a pure stop-and-go track. “You either brake or accelerate,” Stella confirmed, “and the car has struggled a bit in both conditions. The team did a great job improving the car compared to the first practice sessions, still managing to be in a position to fight for pole.”
Among the unusual aspects of McLaren’s weekend was a significant amount of work dedicated to a small modification to the front suspension geometry. From the outside, only the updated aerodynamic surface to optimize airflow is visible, but a mechanical change was also introduced, albeit minor. However, Oscar Piastri preferred to return to the original setup after running some laps (on Friday) with the new version.
“The suspension was available to both drivers,” Stella explained. “The modification aims to transmit a bit more feedback through the suspension and steering. I believe such a small change makes it difficult for drivers to immediately isolate its effect unless doing a direct comparison, which is always very hard during a race weekend. Lando chose to use it, but beyond that, it remains a setup option that could also differ for each driver depending on their driving needs. We’re talking about small geometry tweaks, nothing that significantly impacts performance.”
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