At the end of qualifying, we see Oscar Piastri in first position and Lando Norris in seventh. A disappointing session for both drivers compared to what they had shown in recent races. Team Principal Andrea Stella also admitted that McLaren is slightly struggling in Canada and that the race won’t be as straightforward as the previous ones.
In FP1, a new wing was tested, but during that session the car couldn’t stay on track. Drivers made frequent mistakes and were almost never able to put together a clean lap. In the second Free Practice session, the old Barcelona wing was reinstalled, and the situation improved slightly.
Andrea Stella’s concerns
The worst weekend up to Saturday for the Woking-based team this season. McLaren struggled heavily in qualifying in Canada and is preparing for an equally difficult race due to poor track position. Gaining positions at the start to get into clean air and set their pace will be crucial. Here are Andrea Stella’s comments at the end of the session:
“It’s not the qualifying result we hoped for today, but it reflects the fact that this track has been difficult for the MCL39’s performance, as we saw already from FP1. The team did a good job making several adjustments from a setup perspective and the drivers also made improvements in their driving approach, which worked well and allowed us to be relatively competitive in qualifying up to the final session.”
“Oscar managed to make good progress, but the car’s potential wasn’t enough to beat George Russell and Max Verstappen today, who both used medium tyres in their final runs. For Lando, Q1 and Q2 were competitive, but in Q3 he couldn’t improve his performance and will start from seventh, which doesn’t reflect his or the car’s true potential.”
“It will be an interesting race in terms of tyres and strategy, as well as the potential for a Safety Car. Therefore, we remain optimistic for the race and will now focus on maximising our preparation for tomorrow as a team.”
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