McLaren reveal ‘good news’ from two clear missed chances to win races

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella believes the fact the team are frustrated at their recent “near misses” at victory is “good news”, as it is a show of their progress over the past year.

McLaren went from being a lower midfield team to catapulting themselves towards the front of the field this time last season with a huge raft of upgrades brought to the Austrian Grand Prix, and they have built on that platform by becoming regular challengers for race wins with Red Bull this season.

McLaren boss: Race win near misses are ‘good news’ for looking to team’s future

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher and Sam Cooper

Lando Norris’ late contact with Max Verstappen in Austria was followed by the team opting to switch him to soft tyres instead of new mediums for the final stint at Silverstone, with a slow stop after Norris pitted from the lead after he skidded into his pit box allowing Lewis Hamilton into the lead.

Those factors combined helped the Mercedes driver earn his first win since December 2021, with Norris admitting it was another race which McLaren should have taken top honours afterwards.

Team-mate Oscar Piastri acknowledged he should have pushed for a double-stack pit stop strategy too, with the time lost in changing conditions by staying out an extra lap dropping him down the field at Silverstone, though he ended up fourth on the road with Norris third.

But despite the drivers’ frustration, their team principal believed there was reason to be positive – as the very fact they were bemused at not taking victory is a sign of the team’s significant progress.

With that, however, comes the “responsibility” from everyone in the team to build experience in how to take on battle-hardened teams like Red Bull and Mercedes in these situations, given their recent title-winning experience.

“Well, the near misses are, first of all, a point of view of good news, right? We didn’t have this kind of near misses until 12 months ago,” Stella pointed out to media including PlanetF1.com at Silverstone.

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“And first of all, we need to look at the positives. We need to look at the fact that the team has a condition to be frustrated because we are P3 in the podium with the other driver P4, and once again the team has scored more points.

“So if we don’t start from the positives from the building site, we’re going to be the ones that build and destroy, build and destroy, and stay always at the same level.

“So this is the responsibility for everyone, while Lando and Oscar don’t have responsibility in some of the calls that we call missed opportunities, we all – drivers included – have the responsibility to keep building, and when you have days in which we have a missed opportunity, it’s the best opportunity to keep building.

“We are racing against teams that have won championship and championship, and they are pretty stable in terms of the people that are there, like they are even familiar with this kind of racing at the top in the changeable conditions and so on.

“From this point of view, we are, I think, more of an ‘under construction’ site, and we take these near misses, but the opportunity will come soon.”

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