McLaren wary of Max Verstappen’s “powerful weapon” in Dutch GP

McLaren are not ruling out the possibility of Max Verstappen winning the Dutch Grand Prix despite their dominance of the weekend so far.

Oscar Piastri edged teammate and championship rival Lando Norris to pole position as McLaren dominated qualifying, while home hero Verstappen slotted his Red Bull into third on the grid.

While McLaren boast track position, team principal Andrea Stella believes Verstappen could hold a potential strategic advantage due to having a new set of soft tyres.

“The strategy is one of the variables through which the competition between Lando and Oscar can express itself,“ Stella said after qualifying at Zandvoort, where Crash.net are on the ground.

“But let me first say that we have Lando, we have Oscar, and we have Max Verstappen. The first thing we have to do in the interest of the team and in the interest of Lando and Oscar is to make sure that we beat Max, who is not very far. He is two tenths away from us.

“I think it will be interesting, not only between the two McLaren drivers, but also with other drivers. Max for instance, has a new soft that he saved from qualifying, and it could be a pretty powerful weapon if you can deploy that weapon strategically at the right time.”

What will be the favoured strategy? 

F1’s tyre supplier Pirelli expects a two-stop strategy to be the favoured route teams take in Sunday’s grand prix, while a one-stop is also possible.

Pirelli did note that using the soft could be a realistic option for teams banking on a two-stopper, though Red Bull have suggested they are leaning towards a sole pit stop.

“On paper, medium-hard-hard was a quick strategy, where you can also push more. But considering how difficult it is to overtake here, the one-stop is a possibility. You protect your track position,” Pirelli chief Mario Isola said.

“It's interesting to observe that the soft is a compound that could be used for a stint of the race. If you start planning a strategy medium-hard, and then realise that the stints are not long enough or for any reason you need an extra stint, then you can use a soft at the end.

“If you plan a strategy with two stops from the beginning, then we believe that soft-hard-medium is better. Because you have the advantage of a soft that is giving you more grip at the start of the race, and then you develop the rest of the race with a hard and a medium.”

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko said on Friday: “The harder the compound, the better we are. It's a medium-hard race with one stop for sure. So our hopes are in this direction.”