McLaren
Lando Norris, DNF
“Today was tough. We made the decision to start on Intermediates because it was still spitting on the grid, and while the start was fantastic, the rain eased and that choice proved wrong beyond the first lap. That’s racing. Sometimes those decisions win you a race, sometimes they don’t and I take my share of responsibility for that decision. We also had to deal with a couple of early stops and, in the end, a mechanical failure that put us out of the race. In the cold conditions we couldn’t get the fronts up to temperature, which made the car hard to handle, but even so I think we were on for decent points.
“There are still plenty of positives to take from the weekend. Our pace was strong, we fought the Mercedes, and the support from the fans was brilliant. We’ll investigate the failure, work on tyre warm-up in cooler conditions, and come back stronger. We learn from the calls we made today and aim to turn that speed into a clean finish and points next time.”
Oscar Piastri, 11th
"That wasn’t the day we were hoping for. We made the decision to start on Inters as the ground was quite wet between the anthem and getting in the car, but ultimately it was the wrong call. I then got some damage in the collision with Albon. Apologies to him and to the Williams team. After that, we did what we could to try and catch up but it was just very difficult out there.
"There are still positives to take from this weekend. I feel like I made progress in some areas and we have made a step forward in closing the gap to Mercedes. We now reset, review and shift our focus to Monaco.”
Andrea Stella, Team Principal
"It’s been a Sprint event weekend of two halves. We were competitive in qualifying and the sprint, but the race didn’t go our way. We opted for intermediates five minutes before the start because the track was greasy and it was still raining; unfortunately, the rain stopped as soon as the tyres went on, the track dried quickly, and two extra formation laps took away any advantage. With Lando we faced a car issue, had to stop to clean the radiators, and then suffered a terminal gearbox problem. On Oscar’s side, the collision with Albon damaged the car and led to a penalty, and even in free air we struggled to generate the tyre temperatures needed for strong race pace.
“This is racing, and on difficult days you show character and learn the qualities that make you a champion. We’re grateful for the support, we’ll regroup and go again in Monaco.”
