Oscar Piastri’s bold, sweeping move around the outside of Lando Norris at Turn 9 looked like the ultimate display of a young driver refusing to yield – a gutsy statement on the opening lap of Formula 1’s season finale.
But behind the drama, the precision, and the social-media-ready highlight reel, there was something more calculated at play. McLaren boss Andrea Stella has revealed that the move wasn’t simply opportunistic brilliance: it was part of a pre-race tactical script.
As teams debated whether Abu Dhabi would unfold as a one-stop or a two-stop race due to tyre graining fears, McLaren had a specific problem to solve: how to give both drivers the best shot at their respective goals.
With rival Max Verstappen starting on mediums – and with Red Bull assuming McLaren would match that choice – McLaren instead split strategies. Norris started on the more conventional mediums, while Piastri quietly lined up on the hards.
A Team Strategy Hidden in a Teammate Duel
Stella explained the logic behind a decision that surprised pundits.
“I think everyone entered the race not clear whether it was a one- or a two- [stop strategy], but I think everyone was clear that the hard would have been a good tyre,” the Italian explained.
“If there's somebody on a hard chasing somebody on a medium, the one on the medium needs to push and at some stage might have to pit. We were, if anything, a bit surprised that Max could go so long and so fast on the medium tyres.”
©McLaren
To execute that plan, Piastri couldn’t be stuck behind Norris – especially given Norris only needed third place to secure the championship. So McLaren agreed on a controlled approach to Lap 1.
“We did discuss and we discussed even more than usual that we obviously wanted to have absolutely clean racing in the first lap,” Stella said.
“We also discussed that with Oscar on the hard tyre, kind of letting - or not making life difficult for - Oscar to take the second place and then try and attack Verstappen.
“[That] was a strategic option that Lando supported. So it was good and fair overtaking by Oscar.
"But in itself this is a scenario that we discussed, so it wasn't the hardest of the battles because there was a general interest from this point of view.”
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Stella admitted that the decision to put Piastri on the hard tyre wasn’t firmed up until shortly before lights-out.
“It's a collective decision which is made through several conversations,” he explained.
“It's not even a single meeting. You sometimes have a hypothesis on Saturday. You go, you sleep on it, and in the morning, somebody comes like, 'Have we considered this?' The decision was made a couple of hours before the race.”
Piastri: ‘We tried a bit of a gamble’
While Norris sealed the world title, Piastri’s role was to push Verstappen into tyre trouble and keep McLaren’s winning options open.
“The pass might have looked like pure combativeness, but for Piastri, it was the first necessary step in trying to make the gamble work.
Speaking after the race, the Australian reflected on the strategy call.
“There wasn't anything left out there. Obviously, we tried a bit of a gamble on the strategy to give ourselves some different options and hope that the stars aligned to give ourselves the best chance,” the McLaren driver said.
Piastri added that missing a practice session didn’t help his early rhythm.
“Ultimately, in the end, that didn't happen. I think given as well I missed a practice session, it took a little bit to find my feet, so I think that was the maximum we could have achieved,” he said.
“We didn't have an answer for Max's pace. So pretty happy with the weekend. Not much more we could have done.”
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To fans, Piastri’s overtake will be remembered as one of the standout moments of the season: daring, decisive, and brilliantly executed.
But inside McLaren, it underscored something else – a driver perfectly executing a pre-agreed plan in the most intense moment of the year.
It may have looked like fire, but beneath it was cool strategy. And in Formula 1, few things are more thrilling than when the two align.
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