McLaren break silence on Piastri’s ‘mystery gap’ to Norris

Piastri was left puzzled after finishing six-tenths of a second behind teammate and polesitter Lando Norris at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez, a gap that persisted across every session of the weekend.

While the young driver admitted the car felt fine to drive, he couldn’t explain where the missing time had gone.

“Being that far off when you feel like you’ve done a reasonable job is a difficult place to be,” Piastri said. “That’s my biggest concern at the moment.”

The 23-year-old will line up seventh on the grid for Sunday’s race, but his deficit prompted questions about whether his MCL39 was hiding an underlying problem. Stella, however, dismissed any mechanical suspicions, stressing that McLaren’s analysis revealed nothing out of the ordinary.

“Every evidence, every piece of data, every indirect measurement or information we have tells us that there is no problem with the car,” Stella said after qualifying at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. “We have no reason to suspect that’s the case.”

The McLaren boss also ruled out a chassis change ahead of next week’s São Paulo Grand Prix. “I know that in the history of Formula 1, there is this topic of changing the chassis, but I would change other components than the chassis, like the floor, the front wing,” he explained.

“These are very, very unique conditions [in Mexico City, with the high altitude], and once you get the familiarity with what you have to do and what you have to feel, then you start to gain in every single corner. So no concern with the car, and I’m sure Oscar will capitalise from the learning,” Stella concluded.

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