McLaren team boss Andrea Stella reckons his Formula 1 squad needs to improve its pitstop hardware after further struggles in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Lando Norris was the only McLaren driver to score points in Baku as he finished seventh while championship leader Oscar Piastri crashed out on lap one.
But Norris’ bid to progress through the pack was halted by his slow, 4.1s pitstop on lap 38 after a problem with the front right wheel gun.
That released him into eighth right behind the cars of Charles Leclerc and Liam Lawson with Norris only able to overtake the Ferrari across the final 13 laps.
“In terms of pitstops, that’s an area in which we have already concentrated our efforts,” said Stella.
“But as a matter of fact, we need to keep working because there’s some important performance that is available through pitstops and we have seen that the racing, if anything, is getting tighter and tighter.
Andrea Stella, McLaren
Photo by: Bryn Lennon / Formula 1 / Getty Images
“So what is the impact of a pitstop now gets more and more important. So definitely, for the remainder of the season and also thinking about next year’s car, there’s work to do from a pitstop point of view for what is the execution of the pitstop, but also the hardware, such that executing a pitstop for our crew is just more straightforward and more natural.
“There’s still some interactions between the operator and the hardware that should be improved from an hardware point of view.”
It was the second consecutive race in which Norris has suffered a slow pitstop, as he was stationary for 5.9s in Monza after troubles with the front-left gun.
Stella is therefore not happy with how McLaren has executed pitstops as of late, believing that is down to the equipment it uses.
“We know that from a hardware point of view, we are not optimising,” he added. “This is not because we didn’t want, this is because you kind of learn on the way.
“We know that there’s room for improvement in terms of the equipment, in terms of the hardware on the equipment and the car side, so that we can make the life a little bit easier for our pitcrew.”
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Lando Norris, McLaren
Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images
Stella was still pleased with the race Norris executed in spite of the setback, despite claims it was a missed opportunity for him given Piastri’s crash.
It means the Australian now leads Norris by 25 points with seven rounds remaining, while McLaren is set to clinch the constructors’ title.
“I think Lando today had a strong race,” said Stella. “He raced to the limit of the potential that was available in the car.
“No other driver in Lando’s car could have scored more. If anything, the responsibility to try and extract more performance today or more points may lay more on the team’s side because with a fast, or the fastest pitstop, we could have given Lando the opportunity perhaps to attack Liam Lawson.
“But from a driving point of view, we are completely happy that Lando has delivered to the limit of what was available today in the car.”
