McLaren
Lando Norris, P7
“Mixed feelings today. The potential was extremely high this weekend in terms of my feeling for the car and the pace being strong enough to probably challenge for a podium finish. I felt very confident with the balance and knew exactly what the car was going to do, which is a huge positive for us going forward.
“It's a slight shame about the result though everything that could have made our life difficult today, did. We were unlucky with the timing of the VSCs, which helped our rivals, and the unfortunate delay with a technical issue on the pit stop cost a significant amount of time which ultimately translates into track position and points. When you have the pace to achieve a great result but are held back by challenging factors like that, it's frustrating. We will now work to analyse what went wrong and learn from it before hitting track in Hungary.”
Oscar Piastri, P5
“We had good pace today, especially in the first stint, and the podium wasn't out of the question, which is a positive we can take away. However, it was certainly not a straightforward race for us. The damage we sustained after the contact with Charles Leclerc just made things much more difficult as we were losing a few tenths per lap. I struggled for the rest of that stint, and while we compensated a little for it in the second stint, the race was tougher than it needed to be.
“We definitely need a bit more performance as it feels like we're just that one step behind which isn't the easiest position to be in. We're looking ahead now, and hopefully the new upgrades we plan to bring will help us close that gap and compete more consistently. Let's see what we can do in Hungary.”
Andrea Stella, Team Principal
“We leave this weekend with mixed feelings but are encouraged by the underlying pace shown. It’s clear our package adapted better to this circuit, and our main objective is now to ensure we can keep improving, and we know this will require upgrades to our car. While the PU operated reliably and effectively, opportunities are still clearly possible in terms of PU exploitation, so we will keep on working with our partners at HPP to enable us to extract all of the lap time available. However, we leave Spa-Francorchamps with a smaller points haul than our potential.
“Lando was very solid today, and with a clean race, the car had the pace to contend for a podium. Without the penalty, the time we lost due to a technical issue in the pit stop, and a Safety Car timing that didn’t suit our Hard tyre strategy, he would have been fighting at the front from his natural position of P3 on the grid. Oscar also drove very well and also had the potential to be on the podium, but the floor damage from the contact with Charles Leclerc cost us between two and three tenths of lap time, and forced him to push the tyres, which accelerated degradation in the second half of both stints.
“We know we must improve our braking and cornering to challenge our main opponents on tracks like Hungary and the Netherlands. We have upgrades coming for the second part of the season, and while not everything will be solved at once, our objective is clear - we want to consistently fight for podiums and, ultimately, victories.”
