Andrea Stella, the team principal of McLaren, had mixed feelings following the United States Grand Prix. He was pleased to see Lando Norris finish an impressive second and Oscar Piastri come in fifth, but he believes the team in Austin could have achieved even more.
“We race to win, that would have satisfied me today,” Stella said afterwards. “But at least it’s positive that we’ve shown we have the speed to compete for the win.” According to Stella, McLaren was unable to fully utilize this speed: “We had an interesting battle with Leclerc, which cost us quite a bit of time. As a result, we couldn’t overtake Max Verstappen. But the speed was definitely in the car.”
After the double retirement in the sprint race, Stella felt it was particularly important to score points on Sunday. They succeeded, with a podium for Norris and solid points for Piastri. “It was important to score today after the disappointment of Saturday,” the Italian continued. “Oscar also scored good points, especially considering he was a bit behind all weekend. All in all, it was a good Sunday.”
