Why McLaren made its bold Canada F1 tyre choice, and why it looked worse than it was

McLaren’s Andrea Stella says the decision to start both drivers at the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix on intermediate tyres was logical, but made to look worse by the extra formation laps.

Seven drivers started on intermediate tyres amid cold temperatures and drizzle ahead of lights out, which was delayed several times.

Oscar Piastri pitted for slicks at the end of the first lap, having admitted on the warm-up laps that the choice was wrong, while Lando Norris followed a lap later, having briefly led the race.

The five other drivers who started on intermediates further down the field also stopped in the following laps.

Stella says that rain was falling on the grid when the decision was made, and that it was influenced by tricky conditions experienced by the drivers on the laps to the grid.

However, the delay to the start caused by Arvid Lindblad failing to get away, which led to two aborted attempts, gave the track time to dry.

Norris eventually retired from the race, while Piastri finished out of the points in 11th after sustaining damage and a penalty from a clash with Alex Albon.

“You have to consider that the tyres are fitted five minutes before the start,” said Stella.

“And that's kind of seven minutes when we needed to operationally make a decision.

“In our view, the track was greasy. Already there was trouble to keep temperature in the tyres in a dry track, but at the time it was greasy, and it was raining.

“So we thought that at the time you have to make a decision as to what tyres, that was the right tyre for the moment.

“After that, the rain very rapidly stopped, and also there was a double formation lap that took the best out of this decision.

“Because I would have been pretty interested in seeing the cars with the dry tyres, had the race started at the time it should have started.

“So I think a bit unlucky with the fact that the rain just stopped, and the fact that there was a double extra formation lap, which I'm not sure exactly when was the last time that we saw it.

“So in hindsight, we were penalised by the decision, but at the time that the decision needed to be made, I think the conditions existed to fit an intermediate tyre. It just changed very rapidly.”

'No bad decision-making'

Stella stressed that he had been part of the process: “In terms of making the decision, actually, it was relatively shared by the people and the drivers.

“I even gave my input myself, because for when, like I said before, a call needed to be made, I just wanted to make sure that we were on tyres that could withstand the first lap.”

Stella insisted that it was the right choice at the time.

“I think we always have to be a bit careful in judging decisions simply from the outcome. I think you have to judge the decision at the time that it needed to be made.

“Like I say, just the rain stopping pretty much after the five-minute signal, and then the double extra formation lap added a clear penalty to starting on inters.

“But with the rain lasting for a few more minutes, and this race start happening at the right time, we could have seen, I think, cars struggling on the dry tyres.”

Norris backed the decision to start on intermediate, noting that McLaren had anticipated a safety car in the very early stages, while even slightly more drizzle would have seen the slick runners struggle to generate tyre temperatures.

"It was the wrong decision, in hindsight," he said. 

"Obviously, it was good for a lap, it kept me out of trouble, and so many things could have happened behind that I would have looked so much better. 

"But it was the wrong decision in the end; I don’t think through any bad decision-making. I think there were valid reasons for what we did. 

"I’m happy we kind of went for something and stuck to it. It doesn’t work out sometimes. That’s the way it is, so we have to take it on the chin and learn from it."

He added: "We thought the chance of a safety car was very high, things like that. So, staying out on track, a safety car loss is 10 seconds. 

"I was leading by two, and if the safety car had come out, not everyone was on their delta, I still could have come out on a new slick probably inside the top 10, maybe even better. 

"There were a lot of positive things that could have come from it. Just none of those things came our way. It was a shame. Apart from the very first lap, a good start, a good lap one, we were just unlucky today."

Stella explains reason for Norris' DNF 

Stella also confirmed that Norris would have retired anyway due to a gearbox problem.

“On Lando, we had two issues,” he said when asked by Crash.net what had happened to the world champion.

“One was that the car started to overheat. Therefore, we needed to add a stop relatively early, which was to clean the radiators.

“I'm not sure how much this was clear on television or for you following the race, but the stop that we did with Lando was actually because of reliability problems.

“And then there was a gearbox problem, which is independent of this overeating, and this gearbox problem would have happened in all cases.

“So today was not Lando's day, he would have not finished the race. So if there's a day to have all the problems in a single instance, then that was the day.”