McLaren team principal Andrea Stella is not concerned his drivers may lose their grip on the top two positions at the start of the Spanish Grand Prix.
Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris qualified on the front row of the grid for today’s race. However the Circuit de Catalunya features one of the longest runs to turn one on the calendar and McLaren may find themselves under attack from drivers behind.
Last year George Russell took the lead at the start from fourth on the grid, the same position he starts from this year. Max Verstappen, who qualified third, took the lead off Piastri at the start of the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix two weeks ago and went on to win.
However Stella believes strategy will be the key to victory today. “Especially here in Barcelona, with the level of tyre degradation that we have, I think actually the order at the end of lap one will not be that decisive,” he told Viaplay.
“If somebody can do a better job on tyre degradation, can go a couple of laps longer in the first stint and then maybe a couple more laps longer on the second one, then you can attack in the final.
“There’s so many ways in which you can win this race. I think it would be too much of a reduction to only think about what happens in qualifying.”
Piastri also suspects today’s race will be different to others this year where the driver who was able to run in clean air from the start gained a crucial advantage.
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“Trying to get a good start and keep the lead is a good idea, probably, but there’s going to be some strategy involved tomorrow,” he said after qualifying on Saturday.
“The long runs yesterday were pretty painful for everyone, I think. So it’s going to be a different race to a lot of the races we’ve had this year. Hopefully, a bit different to last weekend.
“I think it will be an interesting race still and it’s not as simple as take the lead at the start and cruise from there. It’s going to be a challenge to manage the tyres, timing your stops right. There’s going to be a lot going on.”
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