McLaren secured another podium today, making it four in a row in a promising start to the season. McLaren’s 2024 Monaco GP result is another sure sign that the Woking team are holding steady, with both drivers securing a total of 30 points for the Constructors Championship.
Lando Norris has previously finished on the podium four times in the last eight races, but it was his teammate Oscar Piastri who was spraying the Champagne today. However, things could have ended differently for the Aussie had it not been for the red flag on the opening lap. Piastri suffered damage after a small collision with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz. However, a huge collision moments later between both Haas cars and Sergio Perez’s Red Bull saw the race halt and repairs could take place. McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella told how the damage caused some nerves as the race carried on;
“In terms of Oscar’s damage, as soon as the collision happened, we observed 20 points down, which here in Monaco is about half a second. But then, thanks to the red flag, we were in condition to make some repairs to the floor, because the side wing of the floor was broken. So we repaired it, we didn’t fix it entirely, and we changed the side pod that was broken as well.
“So overall, the deficit was about 10 points for the entire race, which is a couple of tenths, maybe two-tenths and a half. And obviously made us a bit more nervous about the possibility to keep the tyres in a good situation, in a good condition, because the car was a little damaged. But Oscar managed to do that, and ultimately the damage was not influential for the final result.”
Sainz’ Lucky Escape
Much like Piastri, who was able to repair damage under the red flag, Sainz was also granted some help to restart. Almost immediately following the collision between the McLaren and the Ferrari, Sainz pulled off the track due to the puncture. However, with a little bit of luck, the Spaniard was allowed to continue his race after limping back to the pits at the back of the pack. The FIA ultimately decided that as the entire field had not yet reached the threshold for the first sector by the time the red flag was waved, the race would restart in the original starting order. This decision could’ve affected McLaren’s 2024 Monaco GP result; had the race restarted how it ended at the red flag, Norris would be in P3 and However, while Stella believes the restart was carried out in the right way, he wonders why penalties are not necessarily given out consistently in every race following Sainz’s impeding in Quali;
“In terms of the way in which the restart order was determined, I think what the FIA did was the best thing to do, because, and also it is in agreement with the precedents, whereby you use the safety car line 2 when sector time is not available. I don’t think using the mini-sectors is a good way of doing that. Obviously, the whole point that saved Carlos today was that Zhou had not crossed the sector time at the time the race was suspended.
“Lucky Carlos, I think he was lucky today, and he was also somehow applied a lenient approach from the stewards, because the collision in corner one obviously created significant damage to Oscar’s car, and I think this sums up with yesterday’s impeding. Like I say, lucky Carlos, this gained him a podium. We are happy for him, but I think especially with yesterday’s impeding, we are still a little puzzled as to what is the difference between yesterday and Imola.”
Norris’ Pit Stop Dilemma
Two places back from Oscar in his battle with Sainz, his teammate Norris’ race wasn’t without it’s complexities. The Brit’s was hot on the heels of Sainz in P3, but tyre management was a huge factor alongside the tight walls of the Monte Carlo circuit. Norris started on the Medium tyre, before completing the mandatory pit stop to swap to another tyre compound during the red flag on Lap 1. However, while he fared better than the likes of Mercedes, who were forced to swap onto the less durable Medium tyre from the Hard, driving an entire race on one set is a huge ask. The team did consider bringing Norris in for a second pit stop after he was able to create a large time gap to the Mercedes of Russell behind. Ultimately, however, they chose not to risk losing position on such a tricky track to overtake on;
“In terms of pitting Lando, yes, we did consider, and actually we did consider it for the entire race, but Ferrari, I think they did a good job of always keeping Lando in the pit window of one of the Mercedes. So, yeah, the pit window might have appeared for a single lap, but it would have been still a bit of a risk because as soon as the pit stop had been just one second slower than normal, we could have ended up behind a Mercedes and then he was gone. Because today, like we have seen, even if you were three seconds faster, there was no way to overtake.”
A Great Start to the Season
Reflecting on the start to the season overall, Stella says the team are pleasantly surprised with how the car is holding up in conditions they did not necessarily expect it to. While it’s been a great start, the McLaren outfit are not resting on their laurels as the year continues on;
“In terms of the traits of the upgraded car compared to last year, what we see and what we expected is just more downforce in all conditions. The car compared to what we expected seems to be well behaved also in low speed, possibly slightly more than we anticipated based on our development tools, which is good news, but obviously this is something that we need to understand very accurately so that we have the right information to further develop in this direction because it seems to be very profitable for lap time and also seems to make us competitive in circuits which have low speed corners.”
Featured Image by McLaren F1 Team