McLaren reveal to 'suffering' in Singapore after discovering 'pattern'

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has explained why Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris have so far 'suffered' around the streets of Singapore.

Heading into the event at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, McLaren was expected to return to a dominant position after two victories from pole position for four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen in Italy and Azerbaijan.

Instead, McLaren heads into a race Norris won with ease from pole a year ago with effectively the third-best car, with Piastri only third on the grid behind surprise polesitter George Russell in his Mercedes, as well as Red Bull's Verstappen.

Piastri finished a third of a second adrift of Russell, whilst Norris was over four-tenths back and starts fifth after being out-qualified by the second Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli.

Stella feels a pattern has emerged this season, and highlighted it as the reason why Piastri and Norris potentially go into the race as underdogs rather than favourites.

Assessing his team's competitiveness, speaking to the media, including RacingNews365, Stella said: "It's related to the fact that overall, there were some cars that were faster than us, in particular Mercedes and Red Bull.

"But we seem to have observed a pattern, having been in Baku and then here in Singapore, that resembles what we saw in Canada. 

"When we have braking with bumps and kerbs, in Canada, we were not the best car, in Baku, we were not the best car, and in Singapore, we are not the best car.

"From a technical point of view, this is not entirely a surprise because we know the conditions in which we develop our car.

"It's actually important information to consider how we can better develop our car so that we include those conditions as well.

"In general, we saw that we gained time in mid-corner, but every corner is kind of too short. Here, it is dominated by braking and traction, and with the bumps and kerbs, we seem to be suffering a bit.

"Through qualifying, throughout the event, we saw Mercedes was in a condition to put together some very competitive sectors, and Max, the same.

"Our drivers were making comments, which resembled the comments in Baku and Canada, so it is a regime in which we are simply not the most competitive."