Piastri’s Impeding
It was not a Saturday to remember at Monza for the McLaren team. In a very particular qualifying session in which, once again, the teams with the Mercedes power unit prevailed, the two papaya cars will start only from sixth and eighth position on the grid.
Read more F1 GP Italy 2026, Race: Gasly dreams, Russell and Ferrari lurking. Starts at 15:00 – LIVE
Oscar Piastri had actually managed to secure a good third position, but he was demoted three places on the grid for an impeding committed against Liam Lawson during Q2. A perfect example of the poor “execution” put in place by the reigning world champion team; also Lando Norris, coming off two consecutive wins in Budapest and Zandvoort, was anything but perfect at the crucial moment of Q3, when it was necessary to make the difference.
“I would say that at times we executed the work well from a performance point of view – commented Andrea Stella speaking with journalists present at Monza – like in Q2, where we had the two cars even in first and second position, because we positioned ourselves correctly in terms of slipstream and both Oscar and Lando drove very well. Yet even there there was the impeding incident: the aspect of execution is not limited to the pure speed of the car but brings together several factors“.
Read more Ferrari confirms Hanson: he will continue to be an official driver
Messed up Q3
The real problems for McLaren, however, came in Q3: “On the first attempt I think our cars were well positioned in terms of slipstream – Stella commented again – probably however Lando had too big a gap from the car in front, I don’t remember well but I think we lost time in some corners. So, in terms of execution, once again we left something behind. Oscar instead did a great lap in that case”.
“Then, on the final lap – Stella concluded – we found ourselves ahead of everyone in terms of positioning on the track. We had some problems with battery management and at Monza every 1% of battery charge costs a significant amount of time. Finally, there was the problem with Oscar, who locked the wheels in turn 1. So, I think overall there are several areas where we did not achieve the expected results. Monza is an extremely particular circuit and the car’s position on track is as important as the car’s performance itself. And also the management of the power unit and brakes is equally important. And we could have done more“.
Read more Russell, pole slips away at the best moment: “But it doesn’t matter at Monza anyway…”
