Stella admits McLaren misjudged wet-dry crossover to cost Norris and Piastri in Bahrain

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has conceded that a single strategic miscalculation at the start of the Bahrain Grand Prix cost both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri significant race time at Sepang, turning a promising weekend into a damage-limitation exercise.

Norris had qualified sixth, but McLaren’s decision to send both cars out on medium compound slick tyres at the start — while Red Bull and Mercedes opted for softs — proved costly. The team anticipated the track would dry quickly enough to reward the slick gamble, but the rain-covered asphalt took far longer to come to the drivers than expected.

Piastri acted early, pitting at the end of lap one to switch to intermediate tyres. Norris stayed out longer on his slicks, unable to find grip and haemorrhaging time in the process. The divergence in their responses was not a deliberate split strategy, Stella clarified, but a product of uncertainty over how quickly the track would come to them.

“At the pit wall, the most difficult moment was certainly at the start where it was unclear whether the track was requiring intermediate tyres or it wouldn’t work for the dry tyres,” Stella told media at the circuit.

The McLaren principal explained that observations during the formation lap had suggested intermediates were degrading rapidly on the Sepang surface, while slick tyres appeared to be switching on unusually quickly compared to other venues — a combination that made the call to stay on drys seem reasonable in the moment.

“It looked from what we could observe that the track was drying up to stay on track with the dry tyres and we thought that the dry tyres would have switched on pretty rapidly,” Stella said. “But as a matter of fact it took more laps than we thought. So with Lando we lost race time and with Oscar as well we lost race time because we needed to pit and accept that the track was only right for intermediate tyres.”

Piastri, Stella confirmed, effectively overruled his side of the garage by pushing for the early pit stop before the situation worsened further. Norris did not make the same call, compounding his losses.

Despite the chaotic opening, Stella suggested the remainder of the race — including safety car periods and subsequent compound choices — was comparatively straightforward to manage. The damage, in his assessment, was done in those opening laps.

The admission underlines the fine margins that define strategy in mixed conditions, and the cost McLaren paid for reading a rapidly evolving track surface incorrectly at a circuit where tyre degradation was already a dominant factor across the entire weekend.