McLaren’s Andrea Stella: “With only one practice session, we will look to try and be ready straight away” in Austria

McLaren F1 Team Principal Andrea Stella was disappointed to come away from the Canadian Grand Prix without points due to Lando Norris’s penalty, which saw him drop from ninth down to thirteenth place. Oscar Piastri narrowly missed out on points as well, finishing in eleventh.

Nonetheless, Stella was pleased with the performance of MCL60 at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, as both cars made it through to Q3 on Saturday and showed improved pace on race day. 

“We return from Canada with mixed feelings. On one hand it’s a shame that the five second penalty given to Lando resulted in a demotion to P13, but on the other hand we showed better pace and both cars were fighting for points.”

Going into the second sprint weekend of the season, Stella emphasized the importance of acclimating to the Red Bull Ring quickly with just one practice session to prepare ahead of qualifying. 

Stella added that McLaren has had a “positive” track record in Austria over the past few years, with Norris taking two consecutive podiums for the team in 2020 and 2021, and a double points finish in 2022. 

“We now shift our focus to this double-header starting with Austria this weekend. The Austrian GP is also a Sprint race weekend.

“With only one practice session, we will look to try and be ready straight away and be competitive at a track in which we had positive results in previous years.”