In the debrief following the United States Grand Prix McLaren concluded that a more cautious approach by Oscar Piastri could have avoided the incident, and Oscar himself confirmed during the press conference held yesterday in Mexico that he bears a certain responsibility.
“We have done a tabula rasa,” Piastri commented, “we are ready to begin this weekend with the sole objective of leaving the pit-lane and doing our best to try to win.”
A short while later Norris confirmed he was aligned with his team-mate. “It is always better not to have anything that could represent a slight disadvantage,” admitted Lando, “we had a good conversation within the team, I believe that from now on everything will go well.”
The pressure from Max Verstappen is likely not unrelated to McLaren’s chosen reset. Until a few races ago the internal priority of the team had been to ensure equal treatment for both drivers, suppressing any risk of controversy at birth. After the Austin weekend Verstappen’s shadow grew considerably, changing the scenario significantly.
McLaren will need to respond, without undermining what has been achieved so far in terms of team management, but with a different priority. Oscar Piastri himself admitted that after the Zandvoort race it was difficult to envisage that Verstappen would re-enter the world-championship battle.
“I believe that at that moment everyone thought so,” he said, “the run of results that Max achieved starting from Monza was a surprise. They had flashes of excellent performance early in the season, then we saw a significant drop-off. The fact that they are now back in the game is a surprise, but we know that they managed to improve the car, nothing ever happens by chance.”
“They are an incredible team that have won many world championships,” added Lando Norris, “and they have an incredible driver. When you put those things together we cannot then be so surprised. Sometimes you understand how to optimise the aerodynamics and you make an important step forward; in this sense we are not faced with a surprise.”
On the eve of the Mexican weekend the difference in momentum between the two McLaren drivers is dictated by the trend of the last races. Norris is capitalising on what is possible, while Oscar Piastri has left significant points on the table. At the end of the Austin weekend the team principal, Andrea Stella, had announced that Oscar’s weekend would be analysed to understand what had not worked as expected.
“Specific issues linked to the circuit emerged,” Piastri confirmed, “my weekend was rather chaotic, what happened (at the start of the sprint race) complicated things. The analysis we carried out highlighted many specific aspects of Austin, so I am not worried about finding myself in the same situation, starting from this weekend.”
The Hermanos Rodríguez Circuit is considered a track where the pole position is not fundamental for the lead coming out of turn 1; the long straight that drivers face after the start has in the past often favoured those who could exploit a slipstream. But for Norris the qualifying challenge will still be important.
“Let’s start by saying that if you obtain the position it means that the car’s performance is very good,” clarified Lando, “then this year we have seen that even on tracks where there were usually many overtakes, for example in Austin, recovering positions was not easy. That is why I would have no doubt in taking pole position as the starting point; it will not guarantee you slicing into the lead at turn 1, but I believe it offers a higher probability of doing so.”
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