McLaren Racing
Hear from McLaren Formula 1 drivers Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, and Team Principal Andrea Stella after the 2024 Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix.
After a clean start, both cars held position through the first sequence of corners. Oscar dropped to P5 as Magnussen moved through on the Wet tyre, which is more suited to current conditions. Magnussen pits as the Wet tyre becomes less effective, allowing Oscar to regain his starting position of P4. A Verstappen error allowed Lando to get within one second of the Red Bull just as DRS was enabled. Lando has the pace over the leaders and overtakes Verstappen, heading towards the final chicane. Lando doesn’t take long to get past Russell and now takes over the race lead. The Safety Car is deployed with Sargent stranded on track. The timing is unfortunate for Lando, whose pace is solid. Oscar, however, pits for new Inters. Lando can still pit under the Safety Car on the following lap but re-emerges in P3. Hamilton is the first of the leading pack to pit for slick tyres; Oscar follows suit and pits for new Mediums. Lando stays on the Inters for two laps more than Verstappen and Russell. When he does pit for Mediums, he is just pipped to first at the pit exit by Verstappen. Russell makes the most of his warmer tyres and gets ahead of Lando, but then he runs slightly wide, just enough for Lando to regain his P2. The Safety Car returns as Albon and Sainz collide, leaving Albon in the wall—Russell pits under the Safety Car, which moves Oscar up to P3. There’s contact between Oscar and Russell as the latter attempts to get ahead at the final chicane, but Oscar defends his position. The two Mercedes swap positions, and Hamilton overtakes Oscar for the final podium position. Oscar can’t keep Russell behind him on this occasion, so he drops back to P5. Lando secures our fifth successive podium, bringing his MCL38 home in P2.
Lando Norris
That was eventful! To be honest, I felt like I drove a good race from start to finish. The conditions were so stressful inside the car but very enjoyable at the same time. The first two stints were very strong, but we were a bit unlucky with the Safety Car. Well done to Max Verstappen, who drove a good race and didn’t make any mistakes.
I’m happy with the second. It was good fun out there and we’ve scored good points for the team. The car’s been great all weekend, so thanks to everyone at McLaren. It’s nice to be so close and on the podium again. We’ll keep fighting to get back onto the top step.
Oscar Piastri
P5. It’s obviously not quite the result we wanted on my side of the garage, but we’ve got a good haul of points for the team, and we’ve made more progress in the Constructors’ Championship. The pace that the Mercedes had on the fresh tyres for the final stint was better than we anticipated, but the race had the potential to be chaos so I think we can be pleased with what we’ve done. We will now get our heads down into the triple header, and I look forward to seeing what we can do.
Andrea Stella
As expected, we had an entertaining and exciting Canadian Grand Prix. The field has compressed, and the competition is very tight. The variable weather today meant several drivers were favourites for the win at different stages of the race, and it’s important that Lando was one of those. This is the key message we take away from Montréal: McLaren is competitive, able to take podiums and compete for victory in different conditions.
The timing of the Safety Car was a little unfortunate for Lando because it came when his pace was very strong, and he was in the lead, opening a large gap, but this is racing, and we won’t dwell on it. He drove a very good race. Oscar was very strong also. It’s great to see him in his second season fighting for podiums.
Our focus has to be on improving the car and improving our operations so that we can consistently be at the front like we were here in Canada. We take home a big haul of points, so we consider this a positive outcome. My thanks to the team for another big effort this weekend, and we are going to Spain.
