Andrea Stella admitted that whilst the result of the Austrian Grand Prix was good for the McLaren F1 Team and their fans, seeing Lando Norris able to battle at the sharp end of the grid gave everyone within the team a good feeling.
Norris was running updated aerodynamic components for the first time at the Red Bull Ring and was able to convert his fourth place on the grid to a fifth-place finish, which became fourth after Carlos Sainz Jr. was hit with a ten-second time penalty post-race for multiple track limit offences.
Stella, the Team Principal at McLaren, praised the team for their ‘colossal amount of work’ to ready the updates for the Austrian weekend, and to get such a good result as they did with Norris behind the wheel will give everyone confidence.
“It’s been a positive result here in Spielberg,” said Stella ahead of Sainz being handed the penalty. “Not just the valuable points from Lando’s P5 but also seeing the MCL60 fighting at the front. That’s good for the team and good for our fans.
“We know this track is a bit of a ‘Lando-Special’, and he was excellent again today, but certainly some of this result is down to the upgraded aerodynamic package fitted to his car. It’s been a colossal amount of work at the factory to get this upgrade here, and a good effort at the track to get the performance out of it.
“I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the people who made that happen, and I hope they’re enjoying the result because they certainly deserve it.”
Oscar Piastri was not running with the same updates as his team-mate Norris and wound up fighting towards the back of the pack for much of the afternoon, the Australian ultimately being classified down in sixteenth place.
Piastri’s race was compromised early after contact damaged his front wing, by Stella was delighted with the never give up attitude he showed despite knowing he was always going to struggle to get anywhere near the top ten.
“On Oscar’s side, he fell out of contention after some unfortunate circumstances, but we all appreciate the spirit with which he dug in and pushed hard in a race at the back of the field,” Stella added.
“It’s characteristic of Oscar – and the whole team – and we’ll take that going to our home race at Silverstone. We’re focused on that now and hoping for a positive result at the British Grand Prix.”
