McLaren’s Andrea Stella on São Paulo Qualifying Result: “For us, it was a bittersweet afternoon”

Andrea Stella admitted that the result of Qualifying for the São Paulo Grand Prix was ‘bittersweet’ for the McLaren F1 Team as Lando Norris qualified fourth and Daniel Ricciardo only fourteenth on Friday evening.

With a different format being used this weekend due to the third of three sprint races taking place on Saturday afternoon, Qualifying took place after just a solitary hour of free practice, and Stella, the Executive Director of Racing at McLaren, admitted they were unsure going into the qualifying hour how strong the pace of the MCL36 would be.

When it came to the Qualifying hour, Norris was one of the standout stars of the session, topping Q1 before finishing inside the top five in Q2 and Q3.  However, Ricciardo was lucky to escape Q1 before falling in Q2. 

Stella says they will review why Ricciardo was unable to unlock the kind of pace Norris was able to on the slick tyres at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace ahead of the Sprint race so they can help him move forward and close on the points-paying positions.

“It’s a Sprint weekend here in São Paulo, so already on Friday evening we are discussing the outcome of Qualifying,” said Stella.  “It was a tricky session today with changeable weather demanding some difficult decisions.

“For us, it was a bittersweet afternoon. We’re very happy to see Lando in P4 after he drove very well in all conditions. On Daniel’s side, qualifying P14, we need to review why we didn’t find more performance on slick tyres – so that we can recover positions in the Sprint and score good points in the race.

“In terms of overall preparation, we were a little concerned with our pace in FP1 but Qualifying was more encouraging. We’ll do our due diligence tonight and prepare for the busy weekend ahead.”