McLaren team principal Andrea Stella says Oscar Piastri passing Lando Norris on the first lap of Formula 1’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was discussed in advance as Piastri’s hard tyres would help pile pressure on leader Max Verstappen.
Third-starting Piastri passed Norris for second with a clean swoop around the outside of the medium-speed Tun 9 left-hander, demoting Norris to the lowest position he could afford to finish to seal the world championship.
The move fit within McLaren’s mantra of letting its drivers race as Piastri needed a win to keep his slim title hopes alive. But as he had started on the hard tyres compared to the mediums for both Verstappen and Norris, there was also a strategic component to the position change.
Pirelli’s C3 compound was more resilient but was barely slower than the C4 medium, which McLaren hoped would allow Piastri to put more pressure on leader Verstappen.
“Obviously, we wanted to have absolutely clean racing on the first lap,” Stella explained. “But we also discussed – with Oscar on a hard tyre – not making life difficult for Oscar to take the second place and then try and attack Verstappen – it was a strategic option that Lando was supporting.
“It was a good and fair overtake by Oscar, but in itself this is a scenario that we discussed, so it wasn’t the hardest of the battles, because there was a general interest.”
Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Andrea Stella, McLaren, Zak Brown, McLaren
Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images
He added: “Everyone was clear that the hard would have been a good tyre. And if there’s somebody on a hard chasing somebody on a medium, the one on the medium needs to push and at some stage might have to pit.”
But Piastri’s challenge soon stalled, and Verstappen managed his tyres to perfection to safeguard a small but comfortable margin, further underlining that Red Bull was quick enough to handle anything either Piastri or Norris could throw at the Dutchman.
“We were, if anything, a bit surprised that Max could go so long and so fast on the medium tyres,” Stella admitted.
Piastri extended his first stint all the way to lap 41, by which time Norris had just made his second pitstop and Verstappen had been on his set of hard tyres for 18 laps. But while Piastri initially gained to the tune of a second per lap on leader Verstappen, the gap then stabilised and Verstappen took his eighth win of the season by 12 seconds on Piastri, with a jubilant Norris another four seconds in arrears as he celebrated his maiden world title.
“The Red Bull proved to be the fastest car once again,” Stella observed. “I think they have clearly done a very good job of overcoming some difficulties. In the middle of the season, they gave us an enormous challenge to beat them on track.
“Often we didn’t manage to do so, but it’s important that we managed to do it in the championship with Lando. I’m not even surprised that they are finishing the season with probably the best car.”
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– The Autosport.com Team
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