Jacques Villeneuve says McLaren need to have ‘big talk’ after key Belgian GP error at Spa

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The Belgian Grand Prix turned out to be a frustrating weekend for McLaren despite further closing the gap to Red Bull at the top of the Constructors’ Championship.

Oscar Piastri eventually inherited 2^nd place after George Russell’s disqualification but a small error from the Australian during his final pit stop potentially cost him victory.

It was a much tougher race for Lando Norris despite outqualifying his teammate on Saturday.

Marc Priestley lamented Norris’s mistake on the first lap and that ultimately led him to get stuck in a DRS train behind Max Verstappen.

It means the Dutchman marginally opens up the gap to Norris in the Drivers’ Championship, making his task slightly more difficult with ten races left.

Piastri completely outperformed Red Bull’s other driver Sergio Perez to reduce the gap in the standings to 42 points and given the Mexican’s recent struggles, it’s hard to see them holding onto that position if he remains in the team until the end of the season.

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Speaking on his Instagram story after the race, former F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve provided his verdict on how McLaren performed.

He believes that they need to have some internal discussions after how they handled the past two races.

The Hungarian Grand Prix should have been a moment of celebration for the team, but a botched pit stop strategy during the final stint created an awkward scenario between Norris and his race engineer.

While communications were a lot better at Spa, they’ll feel they left points on the table on Sunday which could make all the difference in their battle against Red Bull.

READ MORE: McLaren driver Lando Norris’ life outside F1 from height and parents to celebration

Jacques Villeneuve thinks ‘big talk’ is needed at McLaren after Spa

Talking about Andrea Stella’s team, Villeneuve said: “McLaren, how could they mess this up? Strategy wise they need to have a big talk, have an internal talk because they kept this race reacting to others instead of doing their own race and reading the situation.

“They were ahead of Russell, they had younger tyres, better tyres and they pitted anyway.

“They had that win in their hands, Piastri had it and they gave it up.”

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Small errors continue to cost McLaren in both championships

Norris will be really disappointed that running slightly wide out of the first corner at Spa cost him so many places the chance to follow Piastri through the pack.

He ended up behind Verstappen because McLaren decided to run him long on the first stint before evaluating that a one-stop strategy wasn’t on the cars for the 24-year-old.

Piastri could have also potentially only pitted once, but it’s much easier to make that call with hindsight.

However, running long in his pit box when he stopped for the final time cost him a couple of seconds and that was the difference between crossing the line in 3^rd rather than 1^st.

McLaren also gambled on Piastri’s qualifying strategy and he had a car that was quick enough to start further forward than 5^th had they put the right tyres on at the right time.

Stella and Zak Brown’s team have been incredibly impressive over the past 12 months, but the execution of their plans now needs to be perfect if they want to win either or both championships this year.