Andrea Stella – Syndication Server

Stella calls on FIA to review severity of penalties

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella wants the FIA to review the way penalties are applied given the severity of the punishment given to Lando Norris in the Qatar Grand Prix. Norris was given a 10-second stop and go penalty in the second half of …

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella wants the FIA to review the way penalties are applied given the severity of the punishment given to Lando Norris in the Qatar Grand Prix.

Norris was given a 10-second stop and go penalty in the second half of Sunday’s race for failing to slow for yellow flags earlier on, with the driver insisting he hadn’t seen the warning. Stella does not dispute that Norris deserved to be penalized, but says the most severe penalty below a disqualification was questionable given the circumstances of a mirror on track leading to the yellow flag zone.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

“We checked on the data, Lando enters the sector when the yellow flag is displayed, but fair enough, the requirement is very clear, when there’s a yellow sector you are required to slow down and this is the responsibility of the driver, the penalty was deserved in that case,” Stella said.

“Which leads us then to two important requirements that we all, for sure, would like to know are applied when it’s about giving a penalty. It’s two important concepts: One is proportion and the second is specificity. I think the application of the penalty lacks both requirements.

“The specificity has to do with what case are we actually considering. Is there immediate danger for somebody? Is there a crash scene? The specificity of the incident in which the infringement was committed, the specificity leads into the proportion.

“The penalty needs to be commensurate, it needs to be proportioned to the severity of the incident. It’s interesting that the FIA themselves were going on and off with the yellow flag, and at some stage the yellow flag was even removed, right? Which gives a sense of from a specificity point of view, of how severe the situation is.

“So, I think I’m here acknowledge that checking the data Lando did not slow down, but the lack of any specificity and proportion is very concerning. And it’s also a factor that could have a decisive impact on our championship quest.

“It’s definitely material that the FIA should consider very seriously if we want fairness to be part of the going racing in Formula 1. It’s an important business. There’s a huge commitment from every team, from all the parties, and we need to make sure the business is run in a way that the fundamental element of proportion and specificity is guaranteed when a penalty is applied. Otherwise the consequence may go out of control.

“To me it looks like somewhere there must be a book with a lot of dust on the cover that was kind of taken out: ‘Let me see what it says, I apply this’. Seems a little bit too simplistic.”

Stella’s comments come after the FIA changed race director prior to the Las Vegas Grand Prix, as well as firing a senior steward in the form of Tim Mayer. The penalty dropped Norris from second place to tenth in the race, leaving McLaren 21 points clear of Ferrari in the constructors’ championship, and Stella says Norris should not be overly harsh on himself for the infringement.

“What I can say is that we are in a position of going into the final race leading the championship because our two drivers have done an amazing job and this has delivered the points that when summed give us the leadership from the constructors’ point of view,” Stella said. “Lando has been the main contributor to put McLaren in this condition.

“While we look at what we can do better – and certainly pain and disappointment are the prevailing feelings on Lando’s side – at the same time we can only be thankful to what Lando has done for the team and we are sure that this will give him even more determination to have a strong race in Abu Dhabi and complete the job that it was not possible to complete in Qatar.”

Stella wants McLaren to stay aggressive on development

Team principal Andrea Stella wants McLaren to remain aggressive when it comes to its car development for the final six rounds of the season, despite its recent strong showings. McLaren is on a run of three wins in the past four races, with two of …

Team principal Andrea Stella wants McLaren to remain aggressive when it comes to its car development for the final six rounds of the season, despite its recent strong showings.

McLaren is on a run of three wins in the past four races, with two of those being dominant outings for Lando Norris in Zandvoort and Singapore. With many teams struggling to consistently upgrade their cars, Stella admits that having such an advantage over the field at the last race left him wary of making changes that could impact the McLaren’s balance, but the Italian believes his team can’t afford to be cautious.

“In fairness, that was one of my thoughts after the race [in Singapore],” Stella said. “Because we do have some stuff in the pipeline and obviously when you have this kind of performance on track you always may approach things from a cautious point of view in terms of development.

“At the same time, we need to trust the process, we need to trust the way we’ve been working so far. I’ve said already that we have taken our time to make sure that once we deliver trackside we have done the due diligence.

“I don’t think this will change our plans. In Formula 1 I’m not sure you can back off too much because backing off means that the others may catch up and we don’t know what the plans of the others are.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

“In Red Bull we see that on a track in which they thought they would have not been very competitive, ultimately they were potentially second best. I think we haven’t seen [Ferrari’s potential] but even Ferrari, in P1 and P2, they seemed to be as fast as us and the final stint of [Charles] Leclerc was very competitive.

“The race may flatter us a little bit. The situation from a competitiveness point of view, I would say we need to keep being aggressive in terms of development.”

Norris’ victory in Singapore saw him reduce Max Verstappen’s advantage by seven points as the championship leader finished second, but Stella says he takes more confidence based on the team’s pace advantage rather than the actual point-scoring outcome.

“Look, from a numerical point of view, it’s a little frustrating because I think we could have gone away from Singapore having gained more points on Max,” he said.

“I think Ferrari could have finished ahead of Max, I think even Oscar [Piastri], polishing a little bit the qualifying laps, he could have finished ahead of Max. The positives that come from the pace of the car definitely overcome this kind of frustration I think when you have this sort of pace. We are heading on to the next six events, three of which are sprint events.

“So I think it’s definitely not in our hands because it’s still in Max’s hands. Likewise, the constructors’ [title], that’s more in our hands, in fairness, but I think we go away potentially encouraged and even more optimistic that the drivers’ championship is possible because of the performance of the car.”

McLaren signs Stella to multi-year contract extension

McLaren has given team principal Andrea Stella a multi-year contract extension, rewarding his role in the significant progress made during his tenure so far. Stella took over as team principal from Andreas Seidl ahead of the 2023 season, and while …

McLaren has given team principal Andrea Stella a multi-year contract extension, rewarding his role in the significant progress made during his tenure so far.

Stella took over as team principal from Andreas Seidl ahead of the 2023 season, and while McLaren started that year a long way off the pace he installed a new technical structure that helped deliver a clear step forward mid-season last year. A similar step was found in Miami this year to put McLaren in a position to win multiple races, and with the team rapidly closing in on leaders Red Bull in the constructors’ championship, Stella is set to remain at the head of the Formula 1 team for a number of years to come.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

“It’s a privilege to be part of the McLaren Formula 1 team, and I am honored to continue in my role as team principal,” Stella said. “We’ve made great strides forward in the past year and a half and we still have a lot more work to do to consistently fight at the front of the grid, which poses an exciting challenge.

“Success comes through the team working in synergy, and I am enjoying my role, which has allowed me to help unlock individual talent and empower people to work together towards our team’s objectives.

“My thanks go to Zak [Brown] for his confidence in me as a leader, to my entire leadership team and all my colleagues in the team, for their continued collaboration and support. I am excited for what we can continue to achieve together.”

The agreement follows new multi-year contracts for drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri over the past 12 months, with McLaren Racing CEO Brown — who has previously admitted Stella had an even bigger impact than he expected — saying the key components are in place to allow McLaren to fight for championships with regularity moving forward.

“I am delighted to confirm we’ve extended Andrea’s contract as our F1 team principal for multiple years,” Brown said. “His excellent leadership, expertise and the respect he holds within the team and Formula 1 means we could not have a better person in place to continue the pursuit of consistently fighting at the front of the grid.

“His impact on McLaren F1 in his role as team principal has been profound, not only through our results on track and the trajectory of the team but also in his development of our culture and mindset.

“With multi-year extensions already agreed with Lando, Oscar, and now Andrea, we can confidently continue on our quest to become world champions. We’re all looking forward to the years to come under Andrea’s leadership.”

McLaren expects its drivers to offer to help each other in title fights

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella expects Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to offer to help each other if one of them is involved in a close title fight in future. Norris was told to move over for Piastri in the final stint of the Hungarian Grand …

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella expects Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to offer to help each other if one of them is involved in a close title fight in future.

Norris was told to move over for Piastri in the final stint of the Hungarian Grand Prix, having inherited the lead by virtue of being allowed to make his second pit stop before his teammate. The powerful undercut ensured Norris didn’t come under threat in second place, but also jumped Piastri before giving the place back for the Australian’s first win.

After Norris — who is now 76 points behind Max Verstappen — admitted he was thinking about his title chances when debating whether to hold position or not, Stella says McLaren won’t allocate a number one or number two driver, but hopes the environment will lead both to offer to help the other if a serious championship fight develops.

“When you have Oscar and Lando, we are in the lucky enough position that we don’t really need to decide who is a number one driver,” Stella said. “Which is a way of simplifying things… and it’s a way to frustrate the entire team, the ambition and the way we go racing, which is deep in our ethos. We race fair and if one of the two drivers gains a result on merit, this is protected.

“Maybe if it’s the last couple of races and there’s a strong championship interest for one of the two drivers, we may revise this. But what I’m expecting is that the other driver is coming to me and saying, ‘If you need my help with the other driver because he is in the championship competition, I’m available.’ And I think you build this ethos if you manage days like [Sunday] in a fair way — like I think we have done.

“This may give a lot of material for rumors and media [focus]. That’s fair enough — that’s racing. To be honest, I enjoyed this week as a spectator, as a fan, when these things were happening even when I was not in Formula 1. But please acknowledge that we just did what was fair [in Budapest]. This is what I want the entire team of McLaren to realize, and hopefully our fans as well.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

Despite Stella being confident in the way McLaren handled its approach to the one-two in the Hungaroring, he also says the result won’t stop the team trying to identify what it could have done better.

“I think that it would be arrogant that we take this very positive outcome and we don’t look at the opportunities to do better. But I would be a little careful in thinking, ‘Oh, we should have stopped in a different sequence, we should have stopped earlier,’ because there are some potential risks in doing so that we definitely wanted to exclude.

“At no point should the car — for instance, due to a pit stop problem — fall behind the traffic of [Lewis] Hamilton and Ferrari. So we needed to manage some of the problems and I didn’t want to put too much pressure on the pit crew. I’d rather take the pressure and resolve these things with the driver. We are the people that are most responsible in this team and I’d rather deal with that.

“Like we said after Silverstone, like we said after very positive outcomes, we do have to take every opportunity to improve. But in terms of the timing, we need to look back at the race and we do it like we always do, in a very calm way, applying our culture, and we’ll see where we could have done better.”

Stella admits McLaren’s self-doubt over British GP decisions

McLaren doubted itself when it had tough decisions to make in the British Grand Prix and the drivers should not take a significant share of the blame, according to team principal Andrea Stella. Lando Norris was leading when the final round of pit …

McLaren doubted itself when it had tough decisions to make in the British Grand Prix and the drivers should not take a significant share of the blame, according to team principal Andrea Stella.

Lando Norris was leading when the final round of pit stops to swap intermediate tires for slicks was made, and came in a lap after Lewis Hamilton had fitted softs and Max Verstappen hards. McLaren asked Norris for his preference and ended up also fitting a soft tire despite having a brand-new medium available, and it proved to be the wrong call as he suffered from high levels of degradation and dropped to third place.

“In those conditions we wanted to check also with Lando what his preference was, what we should be going after, and one aspect was also ,‘Do you think it will be tricky?’” Stella said. “This we didn’t ask.

“The sense of deciding with Lando was will it be tricky going on a C2 compound in these conditions? But in fairness, as a matter of fact it wasn’t that tricky, because Verstappen on a hard compound managed the transition to the dry tires without big issues.

“So I think this one was a decision that we should have taken once again — like in stopping Oscar [Piastri] in the double stack — we should have taken the responsibility to say the medium is just the right tire; we go for it. I think in checking with Lando, we kind of self-doubted and this led us to follow this direction, which in hindsight wasn’t correct.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

The Piastri situation had occurred earlier in the race, when McLaren was running one-two and intensifying rain meant the team needed to stop both drivers for intermediate tires. In order to avoid time lost in the pits, Norris made his stop first but Piastri lost huge amounts of time completing one further lap.

“I think we were a little greedy that we didn’t want to accept that we would have lost time with the double stack, but effectively sometimes you just have to be patient and accept that you’re going to lose time — just do the right thing rather than hoping that one lap more is not going to cost that much.

“Especially when the rain was pretty steady, so it’s not like he’s going to face easier conditions staying out one more lap. I think Oscar would have been in a really strong position — at least as strong as Lando in terms of opportunities to win the race.”

Stella questions Horner’s integrity after Norris criticism

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has questioned Christian Horner’s integrity after the Red Bull boss suggested Lando Norris had hoped to cause an incident in the Austrian Grand Prix. Norris was frustrated with Max Verstappen’s defending during …

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has questioned Christian Horner’s integrity after the Red Bull boss suggested Lando Norris had hoped to cause an incident in the Austrian Grand Prix.

Norris was frustrated with Max Verstappen’s defending during their battle for the lead at the Red Bull Ring, with one attempt to pass seeing the McLaren driver run wide at Turn 3. That was his fourth track limits infringement and was going to lead to a five-second time penalty, with Horner suggesting the contact that followed a few laps later “just felt like he was trying to cause something up at Turn 3.”

It was Verstappen who was penalized for the contact for moving towards Norris on his outside in the braking zone, and Horner’s comments did not go down well with Stella.

“I think this kind of statement is pretty irreceivable [sic], I would say, and to some extent I think it speaks for the integrity of the person that said that,” he told SiriusXM.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

Although critical himself of Verstappen’s defensive moves, Stella believes that if race control had stepped in earlier, a collision would have been less likely.

“The whole battle was very entertaining, first of all,” he said. “I think it was great to see this kind of battle for winning a race, and it is a shame that we were not in condition to see this battle going until the checkered flag.

“It was a tough battle — up to a certain point within the rules — but at some stage we started to have maneuvers that would have needed to be addressed right away, so that both drivers knew that ‘we are checking, stay within the boundaries of the regulations.’ And I think in particular, Max should have been informed that some movements during the braking maneuvers were not possible.

“I think from there then there would have been more caution in the maneuver that actually took both drivers off, and unfortunately for our championship also meant that Max was able to come back and score 10 points. So I think the battle itself was great, but the fact that we didn’t address the drivers, I think this meant that it escalated.

“In general, we have so much respect for Max. What he is achieving is unbelievable — he is a great driver. There is no need to defend like this. Sometimes you just have to accept that the car behind needs to have an opportunity, and I think that what would have happened if Lando had passed, then the next lap, with the DRS, Max would have gone for it, and it would have been an incredible spectacle. Which we missed, but hopefully we will be able to see in the future, with regulations that are enforced and both drivers fighting within the regulations.”

However, Stella also says the drivers are smart at operating within the unclear areas of the regulations to give themselves their best chance of success.

“I think there’s a little bit of missed opportunity here, because I think the earlier and the clearest way you can address the way we go racing, the more you will be able to prevent this kind of thing happening,” he said. “But the FIA, the stewards, the race director, they do a tough job. We recognize the difficulties in which they operate.

“They have to monitor, they have to understand what is in the head of the best drivers in the world — these drivers know how to do things, they know how to hide things, and they know how to play with the limits.

“So it’s a tough job for the FIA, the stewards. But I think this is an opportunity to review everything we’ve learned during the weekend and judge how do we rapidly tighten up what needs to be tightened up, so that we can enjoy this kind of racing and hopefully have the cars that are involved in this kind of battling until the checkered flag.”

FIA never addressed Verstappen’s driving in 2021 – Stella

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella says the way Max Verstappen races was never addressed properly by the FIA in 2021, following a controversial battle with Lando Norris in the Austrian Grand Prix. Norris complained that Verstappen was moving in …

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella says the way Max Verstappen races was never addressed properly by the FIA in 2021, following a controversial battle with Lando Norris in the Austrian Grand Prix.

Norris complained that Verstappen was moving in response to his attacking attempts at Turn 3, with the McLaren driver trying to take the lead in the closing stages of Sunday’s race. After multiple off-track incidents for both, the pair touched as Norris was on the outside of the track approaching the same corner, with Verstappen given a 10s time penalty for the incident that ended Norris’ race and eventually demoted the championship leader to fifth.

“The entire population of the world knows who was responsible except for a group of people,” Stella told Sky Sports. “If you don’t address these things honestly, they will come back. They weren’t addressed properly in the past when there were fights with Lewis that needed to be punished in a harsher way. Like this, you learn how to race in a certain way.”

Stella later expanded that he believes the FIA need to use the incidents at the Red Bull Ring to reinforce what he believes to be the rules of on-track competition.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

“In every kind of human dynamics, if you don’t address things, as soon as you introduce competition, as soon as you introduce a sense of injustice, these things escalate,” he said. “I think here there was an incomplete job, let’s say, that comes from the past, and is a legacy that as soon as there was a trigger…immediately it became a case that escalated.

“So I think this episode today should be taken as an opportunity to tighten up, to plump up the boundaries, and in fairness, enforcing some of the rules that are already in place. We need to be very clear that these rules cannot be abused in a way that then leaves a margin to do a couple of times the same maneuver, and you know the third time there is going to be an accident.

“Of course, even statistically, there is going to be an accident. Like I say, there is obviously frustration to today, but for me what is important is this is now taken as an opportunity for the FIA, for the sport, so that we can in the future hopefully enjoy more of these battles that means McLaren is in condition to race Red Bull, but knowing that this is not going to end up with a collision.

“For us, there’s a lot of points gone and a victory which I think Lando deserved to have the opportunity to have. It could have been Max, it could have been Lando. That’s racing. But racing…with collisions, we don’t like it.”

‘Details’ now the deciding factor in races – Stella

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella says that Formula 1 has become so competitive at the front that the small details are now defining races after Lando Norris was beaten by Max Verstappen in the Spanish Grand Prix. Norris started from pole …

Norris started from pole position in Barcelona but was overtaken by both Verstappen and George Russell, with the Mercedes driver going from fourth into the lead. Verstappen passed Russell at the start of lap 3 but Norris failed to follow him through in the first stint of the race, and Stella says such moments prove crucial in a race that Verstappen eventually won by just 2.2 seconds.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

“It’s the second time the gaps in qualifying are under 20 milliseconds,” Stella said. “It’s everything getting extremely tight, which means the details do become very important as you have no margin in which you can compensate any little imprecision.

“I would say that as for [the race] the main factor is that we didn’t defend the first position. In Barcelona this is not necessarily a surprise as you have such a long run to Turn 1 and the cars run high downforce so as soon as you gain a bit of slipstream it makes you so much faster than the car ahead, which meant Lando was not in condition to defend pole position.

“I actually appreciated his wise decision to stay out of trouble, the race was going to come to us, but the time lost behind Russell, it was too much. So I would say the couple of positions lost at Turn 1 and the time lost behind Russell are the two decisive factors.

“The pit stop was probably another one second, but in fairness even the one second, if we were behind Verstappen at the start, I think we could have played our cards with good chances.”

While Christian Horner tried to downplay the apparent pace advantage of the McLaren and pointed to offset tire strategies that clouded the picture, Stella says Norris was set to follow a similar strategy regardless of his track position and he believes McLaren had the best approach to the race.

“I don’t think so, I think we would have done exactly the same strategy when leading. As we are in Barcelona, we were very surprised seeing people going in on Lap 16, 17, for me that’s a bit of self-inflicted pain at this circuit as degradation is so high, and overtaking is easy.

“So actually we thought ‘this is going to bring us back in the race’ and we went for our race which we just lost a little bit too long behind Russell at the start, otherwise the race would have come to us at the end of the 66 laps.

“I’d like to praise the good work of our strategists that this is what we had in mind, and it unfolded the way we knew it would, should people just feel the pressure to go and pit. Obviously sometimes the pressure to go and pit depends on how you use your tires, sometimes you just have to pit, but here it can be very costly if you start pitting early.”

McLaren ‘maximized what was available’ despite missed Norris win – Stella

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella says Lando Norris was simply unlucky due to multiple timing factors that cost him a chance of victory in the Canadian Grand Prix. Norris was leading by over 11 seconds when a safety car was deployed due to Logan …

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella says Lando Norris was simply unlucky due to multiple timing factors that cost him a chance of victory in the Canadian Grand Prix.

Norris was leading by over 11 seconds when a safety car was deployed due to Logan Sargeant’s crash at Turn 4, having been comfortably the quickest car on track at the time and pulling rapidly away from Max Verstappen behind. However, McLaren failed to call Norris into the pits immediately, and Verstappen and George Russell were both able to stop and emerge ahead of Norris when he came in a lap later, but Stella said there were multiple factors that didn’t make the decision a straightforward one.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

“We took a look and he was 1.5 seconds from the time when you need to either turn or go straight,” Stella said. “In hindsight we could have told the driver that in case of safety car, pit, so he would have just reacted instinctively, but we were monitoring the intensity of the rain, and this intensity in the last few minutes was reducing.

“So we didn’t want to pit unnecessarily for a new set of inters when this set of inters could have been very good enough in case of very light rain. I think it was much easier for the car behind to do the opposite, for instance, of Lando.

“So I think that is a little bit unlucky, not only with when the safety car was deployed with respect to Lando’s position on track, but also the time of the safety car in the race, because by that time Lando was by far the fastest car on track.”

With Norris then unable to beat Verstappen but still managing to regain second place ahead of Russell, Stella says the Mercedes was a quicker car and McLaren should be proud of how it handled the situation after the first safety car interruption.

“Not later in the race. I think what happened later in the race unfolded … actually I think Mercedes should have finished ahead of Lando,” said Stella. “If anything we maximized what was available after the safety car.

“Without the safety car, Lando could have accumulated such a large advantage that then we could have tried to make it to the end on the dry tires, but I think Mercedes could have caught up, because they were a few tenths of a second faster. So we really needed a decent advantage to make it safely to the end.

“But obviously this is a little bit academic, because in a race like this with two or three safety cars, you have to assume that will happen and the weather was around, so we knew it was going to be a race decided by different scenarios.”

Stella admits win takes a weight off for both Norris and McLaren

Winning in Formula 1 for the first time at the Miami Grand Prix is a weight off for not only Lando Norris but also McLaren as a whole, according to team principal Andrea Stella. Norris won his first F1 race last Sunday, rapidly closing in on the …

Winning in Formula 1 for the first time at the Miami Grand Prix is a weight off for not only Lando Norris but also McLaren as a whole, according to team principal Andrea Stella.

Norris won his first F1 race last Sunday, rapidly closing in on the leaders when released into clear air in the first part of the race and then pulling away after retaining the lead during a safety car period. Having finished second on eight occasions prior to winning at the 110th attempt, Norris felt he answered his critics with his victory but Stella (pictured at left, above, with Norris) says it was down to McLaren to provide the 24-year-old with both the car and the execution as a team.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

“Realistically, it was a bit of a weight on his shoulders,” Stella said of Norris’s long wait for a win. “But it was some weight on our shoulders as well, because we knew as soon as we had made winning material available to Lando he would have delivered. So we felt the responsibility and I said that many times.

“We feel like it’s up to us, it’s not up to Lando. But credit to Lando that he kept developing — how he developed over the winter, especially looking for instance at improving in qualifying and delivering laps that sometimes don’t have to be 100% when you have a fast car. Just be there. And I think he’s doing that.

“Also, I have to say his race management is now very mature. As soon as he saw that there wasn’t much to do after the first lap, he started to save tires, save tires, because he knew his race would come at some stage. And then that pace he was able to pull off once the cars ahead of him pitted, then that was quite incredible.

“Fast in qualifying, even sometimes pacing himself, and very mature in the race at getting the best out of himself in the race.”

Norris had been on the verge of a first win back in 2021 when he attempted to make it to the flag on slick tires after a late downpour in Russia but come up short. Stella says that missed opportunity was down to McLaren’s processes rather than Norris, and shows how tough it is to win a race as a team.

“We were totally convinced that the gap to the victory for Lando wasn’t in Lando, it was in the team. We needed to provide him with winning material. And as soon as we did it, he achieved it,” Stella said. “So that’s for me testament to how ready he was. Also, when we look at what he delivered in podiums with a car that sometimes wasn’t really a podium finisher on merit, for me Lando is on a very strong journey.

“If I think back to the race in Russia, I think if anything that was a bit of turning point for Lando himself and for the team, in terms of how we have to operate when the pressure rises and in terms of how we have to collaborate to make good decisions by bringing the unique information you have while you are on track and the unique information you have on the pit wall.

“But if I go back to that race, I think responsibility is on the pit wall as we didn’t enforce the call to pit enough. The driver on track, he doesn’t see if it is raining somewhere else. We could see it. It was our limitation in not enforcing Lando to pit, so even in that case he was delivering the job but we were not ready, in a way, to achieve the victory.

“Achieving victories is never easy and if we look at what Red Bull have achieved… I never under-evaluate what they have achieved. I always really take my hat off because there’s so many ways in which you can wrong. For them to be so successful with such a sequence of victories is just amazing. We are just starting with this kind of journey and hopefully we will have more of these days in the future.”