McLaren Racing
Hear from McLaren Formula 1 drivers Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, and Team Principal Andrea Stella after the 2024 Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix.
Lando and Oscar make a good start at lights out, retaining P4 and P5. With his tyres in good condition, Lando overtakes Alonso for P3. Suffering from rear deg, Oscar gets overtaken by Leclerc for P6. With the rest of the grid pitting, Lando leads the pack at the front. Oscar pits for a fresh pair of Medium tyres. He comes out in P9. Bottas retires, and a Virtual Safety Car is called. Lando pits for new tyres on Lap 23. He comes out with Hard tyres. A full Safety Car is called. Oscar pits again for Hard tyres. The Safety Car ends on Lap 26, with Lando in P2 and Oscar in P8. Multiple cars create incidents at the restart, and another Safety Car is called. The drivers maintain their position at the restart, but Ricciardo hits Oscar. He has damage. The chequered flag waves and Lando crosses the line in P2. Oscar finishes in the points in P8
Lando Norris
I am very happy for the team today; they deserved it, and I thank them so much. Our pit stops were solid, and the car felt great today. I wasn’t expecting it to be the race where we would perform like this, but I was comfortable. We could manage the tyres far easier than yesterday and push. Good day, good points and another podium – I’m delighted. It’s a pleasant surprise, but it shows the team has done an excellent job. We’re working hard, and it’s paying off.
Oscar Piastri
It was a difficult afternoon for me. I struggled a little bit in the first stint, and then, on the Safety Car restart, I got hit from behind, which caused a lot of damage and made the second half of the race pretty painful. It was good to score some points still and get Lando on the podium, so we came from China with positives and now look forward to Miami.
Andrea Stella
We expected this weekend in China to be a case of damage limitation, but in reality, it proved to be the strongest weekend of the season so far. Pole Position in the Sprint, a solid qualifying performance ahead of the grand prix, a podium for Lando, and a podium on merit. It’s a great credit to the hard work put in by the drivers, the team trackside, at the factory, and everyone at HPP, and it is a nice reward for us, our partners, and our fans. I’m very happy for everyone involved.
On Oscar’s side, the damage he received during the race robbed him of downforce and made it impossible to fight for higher positions, but he drove really well, adapting to the car’s changed balance, and did a good job adding points to our tally.
It feels good to have a result like this. A big thank you to everyone involved – now we need to keep improving and working hard to have more days like this. The only way to do that is to improve the car. Bring on Miami.
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