McLaren’s Canadian GP disaster exposes a deeper concern beyond the tyre gamble
McLaren endured the kind of weekend that seemed to follow Murphy’s Law in Montreal — if something could go wrong, it did. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were hit by a relentless sequence of setbacks that turned the Canadian Grand Prix into a crushing double zero for the Woking-based team.
Lando Norris retired after 38 laps due to a gearbox failure, while Oscar Piastri crossed the line two laps behind the race winner after a difficult afternoon marked by poor pace, strategic setbacks, mistakes and a penalty. Yet the issue that truly compromised McLaren’s race had already emerged before the lights even went out.
Rain had been forecast for several days, but at the Gilles Villeneuve circuit it arrived only lightly during the morning, creating one of the most difficult scenarios possible for drivers and strategists around an hour before the race start: light rain, a damp track, a racing line that was almost suitable for slick tyres, and conditions that were extremely difficult to interpret.
McLaren decided to gamble on intermediate tyres, fitting both cars with the green-walled compound just five minutes before the start. Within minutes, it became clear that the call had been the wrong one.
Oscar Piastri had already voiced doubts during the reconnaissance laps before the race, but by then the decision had been made. McLaren continued hoping the rain would intensify, but once the race began it took only a few corners to realise the circuit was drying much faster than expected and that an immediate switch to slick tyres was unavoidable. Oscar Piastri pitted at the end of lap one, while Lando Norris followed one lap later.
“You have to consider that the tyres are fitted five minutes before the start,” Andrea Stella explained. “From our point of view, the track was extremely slippery. Even during the pre-grid laps we had seen how difficult it was to keep temperature in the tyres. At the moment we made the decision, it was raining, and we believed the intermediates were the correct choice.”
According to the McLaren team principal, the situation changed dramatically because of the two formation laps before the start.
“The rain stopped very quickly, and then we also had the additional formation lap, which I think completely compromised the validity of our decision. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened to the cars on slick tyres if the race had started at the scheduled time.”
Andrea Stella defended McLaren’s decision-making process, stressing that the call had been made collectively between the drivers and the pit wall.
“I think we were also a bit unlucky, both because the rain stopped almost immediately and because of the double formation lap, which honestly is not something I remember seeing very often. With hindsight, it’s easy to say the decision hurt us, but at the moment it had to be made, I believe all the conditions were there to justify the intermediates. Things simply changed very quickly.
“As for the decision-making process, it was a shared choice between the pit wall and the drivers. I also contributed, because when you need to make a decision like that, you want to be certain you have a tyre that allows you to take some risks.”
For Lando Norris, the day soon turned into a nightmare. After pitting on lap two for slick tyres, the reigning world champion then had to deal with overheating problems, which forced another pit stop so mechanics could clean the air intake area in front of the radiators. Soon after, a gearbox failure brought his race to a definitive end.
“Today simply wasn’t Lando’s day,” Andrea Stella admitted. “And he probably would not have finished the race anyway. If there is ever a day when it is better to have all your problems at once, then perhaps this was it.”
While some of McLaren’s struggles can be viewed as isolated to an unfortunate Canadian weekend, one issue will require far closer analysis ahead of the upcoming races: the behaviour of the MCL40 in cold conditions.
“We were not competitive because of the 15-degree track temperature,” Andrea Stella explained. “Regardless of the tyre choice at the start or the other incidents. Even when we found ourselves in clean air, we did not show the pace we had until yesterday. I can only attribute that to difficulties getting the tyres into the correct operating window.
“The drivers kept locking up and running deep into braking zones. Quite simply, we could not get the front tyres working properly.”
The Formula 1 season is now heading deeper into the European phase, but circuits such as Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps could easily present similar cool-weather conditions to those seen in Montreal. And that is the warning sign McLaren cannot afford to ignore.
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