McLaren Defends Intermediate Tyre Call That Hurt Canadian GP Result

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has spoken publicly about the decision to start both cars on intermediate tyres at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.
Light rain fell across Circuit Gilles Villeneuve throughout the morning of race day, but conditions improved significantly ahead of the scheduled 4pm local start time.
The vast majority of the field opted to begin the race on slick tyres, leaving McLaren as an outlier with their intermediate gamble on both cars.
Stella confirmed the team genuinely believed the intermediate compound was the correct strategic choice given the weather patterns they had observed throughout the day.
The decision ultimately backfired, costing McLaren valuable time and track position as the circuit remained dry enough for slicks to hold a clear performance advantage.
Both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri found themselves losing ground to rivals who had correctly judged the conditions and committed to dry-weather compounds at the start.
McLaren entered the Canadian weekend as one of the stronger teams on the grid, making the tyre misjudgement a particularly costly error at a circuit that offered real scoring opportunities.
Stella addressed the reasoning behind the call, explaining that the team assessed the risk of running slicks on a potentially damp surface as too high given what they could see.
The McLaren principal acknowledged the outcome was not what the team had hoped for, but stood by the process that led to the decision being made before lights out.
Norris had been among the title contenders heading into Montreal, meaning any points lost through strategic errors carried added significance in the context of the championship standings.
Piastri also suffered as a result of the early tyre disadvantage, struggling to recover positions after the opening phase of the race unfolded against the team’s expectations.
McLaren will now look to regroup ahead of the next round as the team seeks to convert their car’s underlying pace into cleaner results on race day.
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