Stella explains McLaren's Piastri–Norris position swap as Norris climbs to fifth in Austin

How the swap came about

McLaren's official race report from the Circuit of The Americas records that the team ordered its drivers to swap positions on lap eight, once it was clear Lando Norris had better pace and therefore more chances to fight the cars ahead. The team says the move was one of the options discussed with both drivers before the start, rather than an improvised call. ¹

Motorcyclesports reports Stella's attributed reasoning: that Norris was slightly faster across the weekend and that the track suited his adaptability when the car slides, whereas Piastri prefers building consistent lap-by-lap references. According to the same report, the pair agreed before the race that if Piastri could not maintain pace, Norris should be given the chance to attack the cars ahead. ⁴

The same report quantifies the pace gap that prompted the call: Piastri, struggling with pace, was losing nearly a full second per lap to race leader Kimi Antonelli in the opening stages, and was even falling behind a faltering George Russell. ⁴

The immediate trigger was on-track frustration. Motorcyclesports reports that Norris voiced his frustration over the radio, claiming he was being held up by his teammate, and that McLaren promptly instructed Piastri to let Norris pass at Turn 1 on lap eight — a move that, per the same report, allowed Norris to extend his gap by four seconds within seven laps. ⁴

There is a minor discrepancy on timing: McLaren's own report places the swap on lap eight, while PlanetF1's account says the Australian was ordered to let his teammate through on the seventh lap after Norris admitted he was being held up. The precise lap cannot be fully reconciled across sources, but the substance of the pre-agreed conditional swap is consistent. ¹²⁴

Strategy: from two-stop plan to offset one-stop

McLaren's report describes a race of open strategic options between one and two stops, with both drivers starting on the Medium tyre as Mercedes did, while Red Bull and Ferrari chose the Soft. Both McLarens pitted in the first round — Piastri from Medium to Hard on lap 15, Norris a lap later — which put the cars into two-stop territory but with the potential for an offset one-stop. ¹

The pivotal sequence came as the leaders' strategies diverged. Max Verstappen pitted for a second time on lap 31, Lewis Hamilton on 38 and Charles Leclerc on 39, which lifted Norris to second on track. McLaren's report says there was relatively little for him to lose by staying out, so he converted to a one-stop in the hope of a Safety Car that never came; Norris gradually dropped back as cars with a tyre delta came through, retaining enough in hand to stay ahead of Red Bull's Isack Hadjar and consolidate fifth. ¹

Norris explained the trade-off to accredited media including PlanetF1: he was surprised how strong the pace remained on the Hard tyre even on much older rubber, but once Verstappen had Overtake Mode available and he had to use boost to defend, the cars behind would come past, and degradation on the hard tyre made holding them behind impossible in the end. He also confirmed there was no disagreement with the pit wall over the decision to stay out, saying the team did a very good job with the strategy, while acknowledging he had been praying for a Safety Car or Virtual Safety Car that never arrived. ²

Piastri's defence of seventh

The opening lap mattered for the order around them. McLaren's report records that Oscar pressured Russell into the braking zone at the end of the back straight; Russell held the position but ran off track to do so and was given a five-second penalty. ¹

The second half of Piastri's race became a defensive assignment. McLaren's report says Russell, armed with a seven-lap tyre advantage after his lap-22 stop, closed rapidly and attacked in waves, but the Australian survived several assaults and ended the race 1.6 seconds ahead, with the Mercedes in his mirrors for the last 20 laps. Stella praised the defensive drive, saying in the team's report that Piastri held off Russell's Mercedes for around thirty laps without ever giving him a chance to overtake. ¹

Piastri told McLaren's report it was a tricky day and that the car lacked pace all weekend, though the Hard compound was good enough to extend to a one-stop after an initial two-stop plan, which helped him manage track position and keep Russell behind. He said the strategy and execution were strong but the team simply did not have the pace to make up places. ¹

Qualifying deficit, upgrades and the podium drought

Both accounts agree the weekend was shaped by Saturday. McLaren's report says the team turned a disappointing qualifying result into solid points, with Norris climbing from eighth on the grid to fifth and Piastri holding seventh, and that both drivers had struggled with one-lap pace on the Soft tyre through practice and qualifying despite long-run pace on a par with the cars ahead. PlanetF1 explains why Norris started behind his teammate: a track limits violation on his final qualifying run dropped him behind Piastri. Motorcyclesports notes McLaren locked out the fourth row in qualifying, with neither driver reaching the pace of the Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari cars in Q3. ¹²⁴

Stella described a decent Sunday following a disappointing Saturday, saying in McLaren's report that the MCL40 was still capable of fighting for the podium but that the grid positions made that goal virtually unattainable. He credited the upgrades brought to Austin with making a positive contribution, and said the team's aim is to end the season fighting for podiums and victories while finishing the Championship in at least third place. ¹

Motorcyclesports frames the urgency: it reports McLaren is on a four-race podium drought, its worst since the closing rounds of 2023 and the start of its 2024 campaign. Yahoo's separate report on Stella's comments likewise carries his claim that the MCL40 had podium pace despite what he called a disappointing fifth and seventh. These are attributed assessments of the car's potential rather than verified performance figures. ³⁴

Radio friction denied; attention turns to Mexico

Norris's closing-laps request to race engineer Will Joseph to stop communicating — made after he was told he would not pit again with his podium hopes gone — prompted post-race questions about irritation with strategy. PlanetF1 reports his response: not at all, he was very happy with the team, they were simply debating whether to box onto different tyres or stay out, and there were no disagreements. He also described the pre-race swap as the obvious thing to do. ²

Motorcyclesports also connects the team-call context to the aftermath of the McLaren drivers' collision in Singapore's sprint race, quoting Stella on the reinforced need for both drivers to work together to get McLaren back to front-running form. McLaren's own report notes Stella was pleased with how the drivers worked together on track with the team's best interests in mind. The team now turns to the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City, where Piastri flagged the combination of low grip and high altitude as a potential challenge. ¹⁴