McLaren offers explanation for Canadian GP performance drop

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri says the team ran out of laps to make its tyre wear advantage pay off in Montreal’s Canadian Grand Prix, as Formula 1 team boss Andrea Stella explains why it struggled for performance compared to its usual title-winning form.

The reigning world champions didn’t enjoy their usual advantage in Canada, having struggled for grip from Friday practice. The team rallied to be in the mix in qualifying, with Piastri third on the grid behind eventual winner George Russell and Max Verstappen, while Lando Norris was only seventh due to errors on his laps.

But in the race, when McLaren often enjoys a tyre wear advantage on circuits that stress the rear axle the most, like Montreal, Piastri struggled to move up. After he was passed on lap 1 by Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli, the Italian rookie fairly comfortably resisted any advances, with Piastri himself eventually under pressure from Norris, which led to a well-documented collision triggered by the Briton.

Piastri said that the McLaren did come alive deeper into the stints of a two-stop race as it could start exploiting its tyre management advantage, but that was nowhere near enough to move up.

“Our pace wasn’t great in the first stint on the medium tyres,” the Australian said. “I think where we came into our own was when everyone else was degrading, we were good. And unfortunately, we probably needed the race to be about 100 laps, not 70, to take advantage of that.

“We were quick at points. I think at other points we didn’t have enough, and I think the whole race we didn’t really have enough of an advantage to make track overtakes. So, a bit frustrating.”

That was despite Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve being a circuit that, on the surface, should have suited this year’s McLaren. But a deeper look suggests that its smooth track surface and slightly lower temperatures didn’t really allow McLaren to flex its muscle as much, or at least it didn’t punish any weaknesses in that area from Mercedes and Red Bull.

Team principal Andrea Stella also suggested that because the circuit is basically a point-and-squirt collection of chicanes and hairpins, there wasn’t enough medium-speed content that the MCL39 really excels at.

“I think one of the reasons why this circuit has been a little bit of a struggle is that even if it’s low-speed corners, there’s actually a lot of braking and traction,” he explained after qualifying, with his explanation still valid after the race. “There’s not much mid-corner phase in itself. You are either on the brakes or on the throttle. And in both conditions, we have to say that the car struggled a bit to start with.

“The team has done a very good job of actually improving the car compared to Free Practice 1. We have done several experiments with car set-up, some of which have been successful, so they have become part of the baseline car into qualifying. And I think overall in qualifying, we were in condition to fight for pole position.

“So yes, it was a low-speed range in terms of cornering, but a lot of braking and traction, and in particular with kerbing and bumps, we’ve seen that the braking and traction wasn’t that easy for our car.”

Oscar Piastri, McLaren

Photo by: James Sutton / Motorsport Images

Piastri isn’t alarmed just yet that Canada is the start of a worrisome trend, as Red Bull is starting to fix its car balance issues and Mercedes re-introduced its new rear suspension to combat tyre overheating. “I think as a team we recognised it was a challenging one and we need to be stronger. So, plenty of things to work on and obviously not content finishing [off the podium],” he said.

“But Mercedes were quick here last year. I feel like this is kind of the result that they should have achieved last year, I guess. So, we’ll see. I am still confident in our team for the long haul.”

Next week’s Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring, which features both Montreal-like low-speed corners and a swooping second half of the lap, will offer more clues on whether Canada was a one-off blip for the papaya squad.

Russell won there last year as well, albeit only after a controversial collision between Verstappen and Norris which took them both out of the fight for the win.