McLaren’s pit stop issues could fuel Max Verstappen’s late-season charge. McLaren faces persistent pit stop problems throughout 2025.

McLaren may already be crowned Constructors’ Champion, but a persistent problem could leave the door open for Max Verstappen to stage a late-season comeback. At the Singapore Grand Prix, McLaren secured its second consecutive Constructors’ Championship. From this point on, the main battle will be internal between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri for the Drivers’ Championship. However, the team cannot overlook Verstappen, who could exploit a problem that McLaren will struggle to fix in the short term: pit stops.

Pit stop consistency remains McLaren’s Achilles’ heel

Slow pit stops have been a recurring issue for McLaren throughout the 2025 season. Both Norris and Piastri have seen their races affected on multiple occasions: in Singapore, Piastri lost time with a 5.25-second stop, while at Monza, Norris’s pit stop reached 5.87 seconds, sparking discussions over potential team orders.

The team clarifies that the issue is not about absolute speed, as McLaren holds the fastest pit stop record of 2025 at 1.91 seconds. Instead, the problem lies in consistency, which remains the true Achilles’ heel. According to team principal Andrea Stella, the main challenge comes from the hardware of the wheel guns, complicating the work of the pit crew.

“From a hardware perspective, we know our equipment makes the operation more complex than it should be,” Stella said. “We have identified the issue and are applying some corrections, which will primarily be operational for next year.”

“At the same time, we are working with our pit crew to mitigate the difficulties introduced by the hardware. There is extensive work in reviewing, correcting, testing, and practicing in the factory with the simulator. It is a very broad and complete activity, but I am satisfied with what I see in terms of review, actions, and future planning.”

Equality between drivers maintained

Despite these challenges, McLaren assures that pit stop issues do not favor one driver over the other. “We have verified that, averaging pit stop times, the difference between Lando and Oscar is practically zero over the course of the season,” Stella added. “It is only a coincidence related to the limited observation of recent events that appears to accumulate on Lando’s side. Season-long data confirm that there is no significant disparity.”