Why Andrea Stella was angry with McLaren despite Lando Norris’ Dutch Grand Prix victory

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Lando Norris took a dominant win in front of Max Verstappen’s home crowd in the Dutch Grand Prix at the wheel of his McLaren.

The Briton finished 22 seconds ahead of his championship rival and still had enough to set the fastest lap of the race on the final lap, thereby taking full points on offer for the weekend.

It was a statement of intent from Lando Norris after the summer break, following questions over whether McLaren would continue its form and close the gap to Red Bull and Max Verstappen.

It showed that McLaren now has a clear gap to their championship rivals, as Red Bull struggles to understand a problem that was not on the RB20 at the start of the season.

Despite the victory, team principal Andrea Stella was left wondering what could have been for the team after both Norris and teammate Oscar Piastri suffered poor starts when speaking to AMuS.

McLaren’s race compromised by poor starts

Piastri explained that he did not get a good launch off the line, which put him behind George Russell and effectively ‘destroyed’ his ability to progress early on in the race.

It then impacted him later on when McLaren chose to extend his first stint, Piastri emerged behind Charles Leclerc in the final laps of the race and was unable to get past to challenge Verstappen for second.

Stella was left angry about the whole situation, knowing that the botched start for both cars potentially cost them a shot at a one-two victory.

“I can’t say anything about it yet. We have to look at it first,” said Stella after the race.

Data from the start showed that Norris reacted at the same time as Verstappen, but the second phase of the start is where he lost all of his time.

“The start is as important as the performance of the car. And if you can convert a good qualifying performance into a good start, it makes your life so much easier,” added Stella.

“That cost us a lot. Because Oscar had the pace to beat Max. So that was a missed opportunity.”

Lando Norris achieves Dutch GP feat that hasn’t been repeated since Lewis Hamilton

The Briton’s win at Zandvoort was an impressive display, not only because he recovered from his poor start and took the lead back from Verstappen.

Norris also achieved a feat that has not been seen since Lewis Hamilton in 2021, during his titanic battle for the Drivers’ Championship with the Red Bull driver.

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Norris’ win margin of 22.896 seconds made it the largest winning margin by a driver other than Verstappen since Hamiton in 2021.

With the win at Zandvoort, Norris has closed the gap to 70 points to Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship, while Piastri’s fourth has put McLaren within 30 points of Red Bull in the Constructors’ standings.