03/08/2025 09:00
Andrea Stella feels McLaren's hopes of a victory in the Hungarian
Grand Prix could be made "a bit more complex" if the forecasted
weather proves to be accurate. For the second successive race
weekend, a grand prix could be affected by rain, as was the case
seven days ago in Belgium, which resulted in a rolling start at
Spa-Francorchamps after the opening four laps were conducted behind
the safety car. For the Hungarian Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri and
Lando Norris will start from second and third on the grid behind
shock polesitter in Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, who was the only
driver in the top-10 shoot-out to improve from Q2 to Q3 as the
direction of the wind dramatically shifted. Assessing the
opportunities for his drivers at the Hungaroring, speaking to the
media, including RacingNews365 , Stella said: "In addition to the
wind, there may be some rain around. "So the situation could be
quite a bit more complex than simply adapting to the temperature or
adapting to the wind. "From a driving and an engineering point of
view, once you understand that the wind has a certain pattern, then
you can adapt. "I think what caught us out a little in Q3 was not
only the change of wind direction, but the fact that it was a
little unclear what the grip would be in every single corner. "Both
drivers, especially on the second run, approached it with some
caution, but once you sort of know what's happening, then I think
you can start pushing a bit more. "You know where to push a little
bit less, you know where to push a little bit more because you're
going to have a bit of headwind. "I'm optimistic we will be able to
express the pace of the car and the full potential. I'd said [on
Friday] that Ferrari was in the game. "Ferrari seemed to be
competitive, but at the same time, we are confident that we will
have the pace to fight for the victory." Norris and Piastri one
year on from Hungary last season The race comes one year on since
Norris and Piastri were involved in their first moment of angst as
McLaren's driver pairing. On that occasion, Piastri led from Norris
through to the pit-stop phase, at which point the latter pitted
first to cover off a chasing Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes. When
Piastri pitted, he emerged a few seconds behind Norris, who had
managed to perform the undercut. Norris then repeatedly ignored
calls to change position until finally doing so on lap 68 of 70,
following which internal conversations took place to address the
furore. Following qualifying, Stella claimed that he felt like that
incident was "10 years ago", but one after which much was learned,
with the relationship between his drivers considerably improved.
"So much has happened from a racing point of view, in terms of the
rate of development of the team, or growth of the team, in a way,
and the results that we have been able to achieve since then," he
said. "There's also been a journey that has to do with improving
our way of going racing, what we call the racing approach. "We
reviewed extensively one year ago the race here in Hungary, and
then we kept this diligent, rigorous approach to reviewing and
learning, and we have, as much as possible, formalised everything
that we have learned into our racing approach. "The thing that
makes me most proud is that Lando and Oscar have always contributed
very genuinely, very honestly, very transparently, bringing their
values into the way we go racing. So we have gone a long way. "We
have established a pretty robust platform in terms of how we go
racing. We are going to be challenged because racing in Formula 1
is difficult. "But so far, I'm really proud and happy with the way
we've been going racing, and with the way Lando and Oscar have
sustained the journey of the team."
