The final Formula 1 event at Silverstone could well have ended with a McLaren one-two, but in the end Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri only finished third and fourth. The race clearly showed: the great team is back in terms of speed, but not in terms of willingness to win.
Interestingly, McLaren lacks banal self-confidence, the ability to firmly and clearly make a decision that objectively has the greatest chance of success and strictly stick to it without panicking.
There were several difficult moments during the race at Silverstone, and on each occasion McLaren’s indecision made itself felt. For example, when the second burst of rain came, the bridge correctly called Norris into the pits, but feared a double pit stop and left Piastri on the track, who ultimately lost around 20 seconds, instead of two or three if he was in the pit lane behind Landau.
In such a situation, Mercedes simply automatically called on both Hamilton and Russell. Yes, George could have lost a second or two, nothing more. It seemed that Wolf’s team had no doubt that they needed to do exactly that, and on the track George was way ahead of Oscar.
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Let’s move on to the second and decisive pit stop. Let’s not blame McLaren for the fact that Norris was called into the pits a lap later than the other leaders: it’s difficult to guess the optimal moment and, when you’re in the lead, you usually make slightly more conservative choices.
The complaint is not about the driving lap, but about the tire selection procedure. McLaren had a new set of “medium” tires in stock – it would seem a win-win option in a situation where the “software” wears out quickly and generally does not work well on their car. But the steering wheel sees that Hamilton chose soft tires and starts to shake. As a result, they discuss everything with Norris and install a “software”, ending the chances of success. At the same time, Verstappen trusted the engineers, no one asked his opinion, and Max had a brilliant last stint on the hard track.
This inability to make a decision on his own, without passing responsibility on to the driver, was fatal in many ways for McLaren. Let’s go back to the decision to leave Piastri on the wet track. Realising that Norris will run to the pits, the race engineer tells Piastri, as if in a panic, and does two things: a) he wants to leave the driver on the track; b) he wants the driver himself to confirm this error. Finally, Tom Stallard says on the radio: “Lando will come through here. I suggest you stay on the road.” Piastri replies: “Yes, I will stay” and, by his own admission, he realises the error immediately after spending the race in the pit lane.
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McLaren boss Andrea Stella admitted in his post-race analysis that the team should not have passed responsibility to the drivers at key moments.
Here’s what Stella had to say about the double pit stop situation: “We should have ordered Oscar, saying: ‘Sorry, man, but there will be a double pit stop’. The driver controls. I think we asked too much of the drivers. They have to do a good job of aerobatics while staying on the track with the right tyres in wet conditions. And for all the processes there is a pit wall. It should help the drivers and in this case we have to say that we missed some opportunities.”
And this is how Andrea explained the suicidal decision to put Norris on the final segment of “soft” instead of a new “medium”: “In such conditions, we wanted to check what preferences Lando himself had. I think the decision should have been made from the pit wall. As in the case of the double pit stop, we had to take responsibility and say that the correct tyres would be “medium” – let’s go for it. And when we started checking everything with Lando, we seemed to doubt ourselves, which led us in this direction. The responsibility to make decisions lies with us. We have more information, more people, so the responsibility to change to “soft” instead of “medium”, which would be better, lies with the team.”
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Race summary: McLaren cannot cope with stressful situations, they do not find the strength to make difficult, sometimes even painful decisions, resulting in indecision and a desire to dilute responsibilities. Probably, the team simply lacks new winning experience, and with victories comes calmness and confidence in themselves and their teammates. Verstappen will rely on Lambiase, Hamilton will rely on Bonington, but the McLaren team probably does not feel confident enough to help its drivers at the decisive moment, in some cases even putting pressure on them to make the right decision.
However, indecision is not the only problem for the Woking team. After Saturday’s qualifying, Oscar Piastri was cautious, but criticised the pit wall’s decision to let him out for the final run later – as a result, Oscar got into a traffic jam at the end of the warm-up lap together with Sainz and Alonso and lost the chance to compete for pole. But in the case of Mercedes, both drivers were able to prepare properly for the decisive lap and occupy the front row of the grid.
McLaren boss Andrea Stella has something to think about
Photo: Mark Thompson/Getty Images
Let’s not forget to ask the drivers themselves. Norris lost the pole position fight to Mercedes without any “help” from the team, and at the end of the race he was unable to save the “softs” like Hamilton did in front of him. And at the last Austrian Grand Prix, Lando could not control his nerves when, chasing Verstappen, he violated the track limits three times in a row and then earned a fine for another “dive bomb”. Yes, it’s a shame to receive a fourth warning for such an episode, but who is to blame for the previous three?
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Piastri, whose race at Silverstone was ruined by his team, is not without sin either. Let’s start with the fact that all his troubles began precisely because he, as almost always, was behind Norris on the track. This year, their pair has a score of 9-3 both in qualifying and in the races – in this situation, the Australian will continue to suffer from the involuntary status of number two. Unfortunately, Piastri is not perfect in qualifying, and in races he often has problems with tire wear. So when Norris is in trouble, Oscar cannot provide support – let’s remember, for example, Austria, where after the leaders’ accident, Russell ended up behind them, and not the “orange” co-driver.
So it turns out that although McLaren now has one of the fastest cars in the field, it is counterbalanced by strategic errors, indecision on the steering wheel at key moments, as well as errors by the drivers themselves. In the individual competition, therefore, there is almost no chance of winning the title, but in the team competition, much depends on the form of the rivals and whether Sergio Perez will come to his senses. One way or another, now is the ideal time to put an end to the slumps and move on to a stable showing of results. Otherwise, it will hardly be possible to fight for the championship in 2025.
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