McLaren still waiting for Lando Norris 'compensation'

Andrea Stella has said McLaren is still waiting for "compensation" for what happened to Lando Norris at the Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid, with the team principal revisiting the saga after a one-stop gamble at the United States Grand Prix yielded fifth place for the Briton.

Norris finished fifth at the Circuit of the Americas, 30 seconds behind race winner Kimi Antonelli, after McLaren opted against the conventional two-stop strategy in the hope of a safety car that never materialised.

Speaking to media, including RacingNews365, Stella explained the thinking behind the call.

"We were actually catching up to the two Ferraris and [Max] Verstappen in the second stint, and at some stage we just decided to go for the one-stop," said Stella.

"Because if we go for a two-stop, we are always going to stay behind. For the one-stop, this gives you the possibility to take advantage of a safety car, which didn't come."

It was at that point that Stella returned to Madrid, where Norris lost out on victory to Antonelli despite starting on pole. An ill-timed virtual safety car played a cruel hand in denying Norris a win that would have been deserved.

"We are still waiting for compensation for what happened in Madrid? It will come," said Stella.

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Stella pinpoints where improvement is needed

The Italian continued by detailing the layers of the strategy call in Austin, including a late look at whether the hard compound could be stretched to the finish - as was the case - behind both Ferraris and Verstappen's Red Bull.

"We also attempted to see what was left in the hard tyres. But honestly, we knew that it was very, very unlikely that we could have kept Verstappen and, in particular, Leclerc behind," said Stella.

"With Hamilton, we thought it was more dependent on the final tale of the hard tyres. Nobody would have known, but worthwhile giving it a go.

"So we are happy with the strategy execution; we are happy with the fact that we kind of understood which tyres needed to be used, and happy with the fact that the car seems to have improved thanks to the upgrades.

"But we need to improve our qualifying performance, and we also need to keep improving the car if we want to consistently compete for podiums, but above all for victories."

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Stella: Norris 'exaggerated a little bit'

That qualifying weakness was laid bare again in Austin, where Norris could only manage eighth on the grid, a second off Antonelli's pole time, before recovering ground in the race.

Stella suggested the result bore out McLaren's suspicion that the car's true pace was being masked on a single lap.

"In the race we saw that what we said [after qualifying] could have been the potential of the car was realised," he said. "We thought that we had a faster car than we were able to realise on track."

But the team boss pushed back on his driver's own assessment of what might have been possible in qualifying.

"Lando said that the car could have been good for P2," reflected Stella. " I think that's a little bit of an exaggeration because even if the potential was there, as I've explained, this year somehow is very difficult to use the full potential.

"It gets a little bit easier in the car in the race, because you don't push as much as you do in qualifying. You leave a little bit of margin.

"And the car was as competitive as the Ferraris and Red Bull, while Antonelli seemed to be a step ahead of everyone else."