Stella surprised: Max had the better strategy until the safety car

In the race, Verstappen made his second pit stop at the end of lap 29, switching to medium tyres and rejoining in fourth position behind Piastri, Norris, and Leclerc. This move indicated Red Bull's intention to execute a three-stop strategy, while the leading McLaren pair aimed to complete the race with just two stops.

Andrea commented on this to media including GPblog, stating "we thought it would be on a three stop and we thought is not going to be a problem because we have already overtaken him on track and we should have a decent pace advantage."

The Italian was later asked his opinion on whether Red Bull should have stayed out during the safety car towards the end of the race and on their decision to put Verstappen on hard tyres, to which he responded, "in a race where you have so much tire degradation, you are always incentivised to pit. They might have run out of soft tyres, I'm not sure."

Ultimately, Stella concluded that the two stop strategy was the best option for Mclaren during this race,"Staying on a two stop, it gave us definitely a tire for a safety car."

When asked about the move from Max against George including that there had been discussions that the Dutch driver should have been disqualified, Stella responded with "I cannot comment because I just saw, but I really lack context, so I'm not sure exactly how this."