Lando Norris and McLaren triumphed at the Dutch Grand Prix with a commanding lead. Despite a shaky start, Norris finished nearly 23 seconds ahead of Max Verstappen in Zandvoort.
Both Norris and Oscar Piastri had rough beginnings, with Norris losing his lead to Verstappen early on. However, by Lap 17, Norris closed the gap and overtook Verstappen a lap later on the main straight.
Team principal Andrea Stella explained their strategy: “I think it became apparent [that we don’t need to undercut], I don’t know exactly at which stage. It must have been around a few laps before the overtaking, where Max’s pace started to drop off compared to Lando. And looking at Lando’s data, he still seemed to be pretty comfortable. Like he could be fast without having to abuse car balance or abuse the tyres.”
Stella added, “So there it became apparent that with this kind of pace, we could have overtaken, even because Max was on a Monaco rear wing, and we were on a relatively small rear wing.”
Strategy Confidence:
Stella emphasized there was no need for drastic strategy changes. “So we knew that if we got into potentially what was half a second or something, we could have gained massively down the straight. I don’t want to quote it. But at some stage, it became apparent, like let’s not think about undercutting because I think this situation will sort itself naturally with an overtaking.”
Fans might think it’s thrilling how confident the team was in their strategy.
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