McLaren missed a clear opportunity to win the Miami Grand Prix after bringing Lando Norris in for his pit stop too late, team principal Andrea Stella admitted.
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Norris had taken the lead following an early Safety Car period, but he lost track position to Andrea Kimi Antonelli when Mercedes pitted their driver earlier than McLaren did for Norris.
After the race Norris was blunt about the impact of the timing. “We just got undercut,” he said. “There’s no excuses other than that. We got undercut, we should have boxed first.”
Stella agreed that the delayed stop left Norris vulnerable to an undercut and cost the team a shot at victory. “Probably by pitting earlier, he could have secured the lead position,” Stella said. “We will review that. There’s always opportunity when you go racing and it’s so tight.”
He added that while the team will conduct an operational review, the broader focus must remain on extracting more performance from the car. “I think for me the main takeaway, in addition to the operational review that we will always do, is that we need another couple of tenths in the car and then things will get a little easier,” Stella said. “So that’s the main aim that we have to focus on.”
This article will be updated
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