McLaren provide explanation after owning up to strategy blunder

McLaren have admitted their call not to pit their drivers under an early Safety Car at the Qatar Grand Prix “wasn’t the correct decision”.

A Lap 7 Safety Car following a collision between Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly dramatically swung the battle for victory in Qatar.

With Oscar Piastri in the lead and teammate Lando Norris running third at the time the Safety Car was deployed, McLaren chose not to pit, whereas second-placed Max Verstappen did.

Red Bull’s decision to bring Verstappen in proved to be critical as the Dutchman scored a brilliant and unlikely seventh victory of the season to set up a thrilling three-way title decider in Abu Dhabi next weekend.

"It's a disappointing result overall,” McLaren team principal Andrea Stella told Sky Sports F1.

"We had the potential to win the race with Oscar, he deserved that. He was fastest in qualifying and the sprint.

"Certainly the podium was available for Lando but we lost the victory with Oscar and we lost the podium with Lando.

"Definitely not the outcome we wanted. Something we will review with the decision we made when there was the Safety Car on Lap 7.

"As usual we will learn from racing and will get stronger for the next event, which will become more important.”

Stella conceded McLaren ultimately made the wrong call.

"It was a decision not to pit. In fairness, we didn't expect everyone else to pit,” the Italian explained.

"Once everyone pitted, it makes that the right thing to do. When you have the lead car, you don't know what the others are going to do.

"There could have been a loss for Lando if we pitted both cars with the double stack, but, effectively, the main reason was not expecting everyone else to pit.

"It was a decision. As a matter of fact it wasn't the correct decision.”

Explaining why McLaren had told their drivers they had “flexibility” with their strategy, Stella added: "The flexibility was related to another Safety Car, which would have put us in a strong position.

"For all the others, their strategy was prescribed. As a matter of fact, it worked very well for everyone who stopped on Lap 7.

"We thought the pace in the car allowed us to open up a gap but, again, there wasn't much tyre degradation and we couldn't exploit entirely the pace of the car. Not the desired outcome.”

McLaren won’t change approach

Piastri said he was “speechless” and had “no words” over team radio radio after finishing second, before later criticising McLaren’s strategy when he spoke in the post-race interviews.

Stella insisted McLaren will continue to let their drivers race at the final round in Abu Dhabi, despite Verstappen now only being 12 points behind championship leader Norris.

"First of all, we understand Oscar being extremely disappointed. He did everything right this weekend. He was fast, solid and consistent,” Stella said.

"The drivers deserved to capitalise on their great performance. In terms of adapting the way we go racing, we just want to always keep options open for both drivers.

"They are both in condition to win the championship. There's often been a situation where the third driver wins the championship - I remember 2007 with Kimi Raikkonen, the same in 2010 with Sebastian Vettel.

"We have to respect Oscar has his chance to win and we will let them race.”