Stella downplays impact of Norris start issues

Adam Cooper
01/10/2024

McLaren Formula 1 boss Andrea Stella has downplayed the damage caused to Lando Norris’s title campaign by poor starts.

Norris has lost ground on the first lap several times this season when starting from pole position.

That streak finally ended in Singapore, when he retained the lead at the end of the first lap.

Stella says that McLaren has taken a close look at starts this season and concluded that Norris couldn’t have done any better.

“I don’t disagree that at face value starts and overall approach to the first corner of first lap might have looked like an opportunity for Lando,” he said.

“But having done a little bit of analysis as a group, including Lando, we have gone through the season, every single start, and every single first lap.

“And in fairness, we haven’t found that even in cases in which Lando started in pole position and he was not P1 at the end of the first lap, he had kind of given up very much in terms of performance.

“We reviewed Barcelona, and we thought that Russell would have been P1 even with Lando trying something different.”

Stella acknowledged that the issue at the Dutch GP, where both McLaren drivers lost a position, was down to a team choice.

“There were some opportunities in terms of execution of the start, but we recognised that that was also on the team side,” he said.

“For instance, I think it was Zandvoort, the one in which both cars had old tyres because of an issue from a team point of view, and both cars didn’t have great a great start. 

“So I think while at face value, it looked like Lando had a significant opportunity there, actually the facts weren’t so clear.

“But definitely we have been focusing on the execution of the start and preparation of the tyres, Lando himself, even the time we focus on start preparation during a weekend is now more concentrated.”

Stella said that Norris is now more used to starting from pole: “You gain confidence, and you gain familiarity with starting from pole position and understanding, even in terms of territorial defence, what you need to do, even to dissuade people for going.

“So I think this is part of the journey, and it’s just good that we are now having to face this kind of opportunity.”

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