McLaren in good spirits after ‘unexpected’ tough weekend in China: “In F1 there are often surprises”

The team of McLaren rode an unexpectedly good Chinese Grand Prix. Lando Norris already took the top spot in the sprint qualifying, but he also finished second in the Grand Prix in his McLaren. Norris’ team boss, Andrea Stella, didn’t see this strong result coming either.

Already in the first and free practice of the weekend it became clear that the McLaren team can come out of the box as a jack of all trades. In qualifying for the first race of the season, Norris proved his form when he took a good position in the sprint race. At the start of the sprint he lost the lead to Lewis Hamilton and the Briton fell far behind.

In the Grand Prix the Safety Car suited Norris well and he was able to make one of his stands cheaply. After this he finished in second place, although far behind the race winner Max Verstappen.

Stella he won the Chinese Grand Prix eleven years ago as Fernando Alonso’s race engineer. He now locks P2 as McLaren team boss: “In all honesty, we thought we had to minimize the damage here,” the Italian begins the conversation with. Sky Sports. “In the end it turned out to be a competitive weekend for us. We had the sprint pole and we could have been second there too if we hadn’t had that time in the second corner. We still have to fix some things, but in System 1 it is often surprising because of the sensitive parameters.”