Andrea Stella, team boss of McLaren, believes that Red Bull Racing is unjustifiably portraying itself as an underdog. Over the past few months, the Austrian team is said to have exaggerated its lack of competitiveness in the media. Storylines that make every positive result seem like a minor miracle are supposedly designed to cast the team in a positive light. Stella is keen to downplay this alleged disadvantage.
Max Verstappen secured his third pole position of the season on Saturday – the Dutchman will start from the front at the Miami Grand Prix. In recent months, the Red Bull driver has managed to keep pace with McLaren, despite widespread recognition that the papaya team has the fastest car. Verstappen is currently third in the championship standings, nineteen points behind Oscar Piastri, ahead of the main race in Florida.
Despite the seemingly tight race, McLaren team boss Andrea Stella noted that Red Bull is doing everything it can to suggest they are in a bad position. “Red Bull is very good at building fast cars,” he told the media in Miami. “They are also extremely good at driving those fast cars,” he said, referring to Max Verstappen. “But what they are also extremely good at is creating narratives that work in their favor.”
Focusing on Ourselves
“Red Bull seizes every possible opportunity to stay in the race,” explained the McLaren executive. “This also means that they occasionally fabricate stories along the lines of: ‘Oh, we’re performing miracles here, because McLaren should be winning every practice, qualification, and race.’ This is the assumption that some of our competitors create – at least, that’s what we sometimes see. We just focus on ourselves. We look at the numbers, at the facts. We consider what we need to improve, and that’s still a lot.”
“I prefer to look at the facts,” Stella added. “Then I see that Lando Norris and Oscar (Piastri) are consistently performing. So yes, well done Red Bull, good that these non-technical opportunities are also being exploited,” the McLaren team boss concluded cynically.
