McLaren team boss explains risky Norris strategy at Baku GP qualifying. Andrea Stella explains McLaren’s strategy in Baku qualifying.

F1 | Baku GP – McLaren takes a risk with Norris: Stella explains

Qualifying proved complicated for the McLaren team, which tomorrow faces a recovery race with both Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. So what went wrong?

Lando Norris had the chance to gain important positions over his teammate but was unable to do so. On a street circuit like Baku, where slipstreaming can gain a driver up to four-tenths of a second, McLaren sent Norris out first after the red flag triggered by Oscar Piastri during qualifying. Andrea Stella, at the end of the session, explained the reasoning behind this decision during a media briefing.

Norris’ Baku GP qualifying

It was a challenging weekend for the Woking team: from Friday’s issues with Oscar Piastri’s car, to Lando Norris’ crash in qualifying, and then Piastri’s own incident later in the session. However, the choice to send Norris out first did not go unnoticed. It was a somewhat controversial strategy, which Andrea Stella felt the need to clarify for the media:

“Obviously, there were several options: we could go out first, aim for the middle of the pack, or wait and go last. But Lando had not yet set a time. We had a competitive car, the risk of yellow flags was very high, the track conditions were unclear, and we wanted to ensure proper tire warm-up. So we felt that sending him out first was the right choice,” Stella explained.

No regrets despite limited results

Even though the strategy didn’t yield the hoped-for results, McLaren stands by the decision. “We are still convinced this was the right choice. We knew we might sacrifice a bit of outright performance, but for us, the most important thing was to execute a solid plan, so to speak. In reality, it didn’t work out—but for reasons not necessarily related to the available grip on track. It was a minor misjudgment by Lando, who also touched the wall,” Stella added.