On the back of McLaren’s first victory of the season, the Woking-based outfit’s team boss Andrea Stella praised his team for building a quick car that is “gentle on the tyres.”
Following a strong showing during pre-season testing in Bahrain, McLaren continued to impress at the Albert Park, showing dominant performance both in qualifying and race trim.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri locked out the front row for the Australian Grand Prix, but the Melbourne-born driver was pipped by Verstappen on the opening lap. However, he managed to recover that position, and the two McLarens looked in total control of the race.
With late rain incoming, both Norris and Piastri made mistakes which saw Piastri slide off onto the grass. He needed almost a minute to recover his McLaren while Norris managed to fend off the late attacks from Verstappen to clinch his first victory of the season.
“It is very satisfying to begin the season with a victory, but we definitely have mixed feelings today because for a long time, it looked like we were on for a one-two finish. Lando and Oscar were both driving brilliantly until they hit a sudden wall of rain in the final sector where, effectively, Oscar just paid a bigger price than Lando when they both went off track.
“He was just a little bit unlucky, but if the car keeps performing at this level of competitiveness, he won’t have to wait long to secure big results.
“Lando was very impressive today. Controlling the restarts, withstanding the pressure from Oscar and later Max in such challenging conditions, particularly as he was running with damage in the last stint, was a great display of how he continues to develop as a driver.
“I’m very happy with the way the drivers have supported each other through the weekend by learning from each other, the front row lockout was the result of this collaboration.
Reflecting on the performance of the team’s MCL39, the Italian conceded that the team is delighted with the new car which appears to be quick and very gentle on the tyres.
“As to the pace of the MCL39, I think today, the gap we were able to open in the first stint, before the Safety Cars, demonstrated both that the car is competitive, but also that it is gentle on the tyres.
“It’s meeting the objectives we have set for ourselves over the winter, so congratulations to the whole team for a lot of hard work – but it will take a few more races until we can better understand the true competitive order. Here in Australia, I don’t think we’ve seen everything our competitors have to offer. We’ll learn more next weekend in China.”
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