Racing
© Jonathan Borba
McLaren left the Canadian Grand Prix with no points after putting both cars on intermediate tyres for a start that swung the wrong way, then seeing Lando Norris retire with a mechanical failure and Oscar Piastri slip to 11th after a penalty-hit collision.
For a moment, the call looked inspired. Norris used the extra grip off the line to jump from third to first at Turn 1 and built a two-second lead by the end of the opening lap. But the rain stopped as the formation lap began, the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve dried quickly, and McLaren’s advantage disappeared almost immediately. Piastri stopped for slicks at the end of lap one, Norris followed on lap two, and both were dragged out of contention.
Piastri said the decision made sense based on what the team saw just before lights out. The McLaren driver told Sky F1 the track became much wetter between the national anthem and getting in the car, and that reaching the grid on slicks was difficult. “It was raining, and between the anthem and getting in the car it was pretty wet on the ground, in all honesty,” Piastri said. “Getting to the grid was not easy on slicks: getting to full throttle was pretty tough.” He added: “If it rained a little bit more, we would’ve looked like heroes, but it didn’t, so we looked like idiots.”
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said the team made the switch to intermediates five minutes before the start because the track was greasy and it was still raining, only for the conditions to turn against them. He said two extra formation laps after Arvid Lindblad’s grid problem wiped out any potential benefit from the gamble.
Norris accepted his part in the call. “We made the decision as a team,” he said. “I also pushed for it, so I kind of take the responsibility for that one.” He said he already suspected on the warm-up lap that the weather had moved against McLaren, but maintained there were valid reasons to try it and that a little more rain, or an early safety car, could have changed the picture completely.
The race only got worse from there. Norris fought back into the points and was running eighth on lap 40 when his car failed. He pulled off into a run-off area after what he described as “a big bang,” and said afterward there was “plenty of metal debris where it shouldn’t have been” when he climbed out.
Piastri’s afternoon also unraveled in traffic. After rejoining in the pack following the early stop, he collided with Alex Albon at the hairpin, damaging both cars and forcing the Williams out. The stewards gave Piastri a 10-second penalty, and he later apologized for the move. “I felt like I was going into the corner pretty carefully and locked the front and then that was it,” Piastri said. “Obviously not my finest moment and apologies to Alex and Williams because it was unnecessary damage for both of us, especially for them.”
Piastri was classified 11th, leaving McLaren with a zero-score on a day when it briefly led and then lost control of the race within two laps. According to the summaries, the damage extends to the championship as well, with McLaren now 113 points behind Constructors’ Championship leader Mercedes.