McLaren Formula 1 team principal Andrea Stella says overtaking was too difficult at the Madring for Lando Norris to win the Spanish Grand Prix.
Norris took pole position at Madrid’s new street circuit and pulled away by six seconds in the first 12 laps of the race, which proved to be his downfall as he was too far ahead to pit when the virtual safety car was called.
After a seven-second tyre change, Norris found himself 16 seconds adrift of Kimi Antonelli. By lap 48 he had bridged the gap to the Italian and second-placed Max Verstappen, but never was able to make a move.
Stella therefore believes the slow stop made no difference to Norris’ result. “Because probably Lando would have [come out] anyhow behind [George] Russell,” he pointed out. “And even if not, it would have not been possible to overtake Verstappen and Antonelli.
“So, definitely, we take note that there's a lot of work to do in our operation. And it's not the first time that we have a slow stop. But in terms of the race itself, it didn't make a difference.”
The Madring track might be to blame. Sunday’s race featured just 10 overtaking moves, the least of the 2026 season so far – even fewer than Monaco, which had 11. Of those 10, four consisted in Valtteri Bottas or Lance Stroll getting passed at the back of the pack.
Turn 5 was the heaviest braking zone but followed a curve, which made braking trickier, and was too narrow to allow for easy manoeuvres.
“When it comes to overtaking, it's a shame that it's so difficult,” Stella added. “It just requires a large, large lap time difference to be able to overtake. I think what F1 will have to review is whether there are some modifications required at this circuit in order to introduce an overtaking possibility.
“Because at the moment, the fact is that the straight may be long enough, but there's absolutely no way that two cars can enter [Turn] 5 together. So it's basically impossible an attempt of overtaking – which is a bit of a shame, because I think if overtaking was possible today, we would have [had] Lando regaining the lead, because the pace advantage was significant.”
