{"id":313240,"date":"2025-10-18T11:10:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T11:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/313240\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T11:10:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T11:10:11","slug":"mclaren-boss-hints-at-surprise-texas-advantage-that-could-topple-max-verstappen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/313240\/","title":{"rendered":"McLaren Boss Hints at Surprise Texas Advantage That Could Topple Max Verstappen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen may have stolen the pole position for Saturday\u2019s U.S. Grand Prix sprint, but McLaren team principal Andrea Stella believes the weekend could play out differently, and while Red Bull\u2019s pace is undeniable, the hot Texan track might give Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri\u00a0a chance to make things interesting in the shorter race.<\/p>\n

What Edge Is McLaren Boss Andrea Stella Talking About?<\/p>\n

Stella highlighted that while Verstappen and his Red Bull are in top form, the Woking squad is not far behind, as the sprint qualifying saw Norris lead in the early stages on medium tires, only to be edged out by Verstappen\u2019s late lap on softs by a tiny time gap.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Piastri was a little further behind in third, but the close gaps show McLaren can challenge the reigning champions\u00a0when conditions align.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere in Austin we should observe more tyre degradation,\u201d Stella said<\/a>. \u201cThe conditions are very hot. I think we come from races where it was a little bit of a procession because there wasn\u2019t much tyre degradation. I would expect here that the race or the sprint may be more entertaining and there could be more variability based on the behaviour of the tyres. Normally our car is decent when there is tyre degradation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stella believes that the extreme conditions at the Circuit of the Americas could add an extra layer of strategy to the race, and with the track hitting more than 40\u00b0C, teams will have to manage tires carefully, and for McLaren, the hope is that their car performs better under these stressful conditions than some rivals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt confirms that Red Bull have definitely improved their car. They are competitive now and can fight for victories and pole position on every kind of circuit,\u201d Stella added. \u201cIt\u2019s also positive to see that our car here is competitive compared to some other venues in which we struggled a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

McLaren Drivers Stay Positive Despite Narrow Miss<\/p>\n

Norris was not discouraged after narrowly losing the pole and said, \u201cIt\u2019s not a surprise for us to be just a bit slower than the Red Bull lately. We struggled the whole year with our qualifying pace, especially when it\u2019s close. That\u2019s why I think I would say not surprised but we have more hopes for the race that we can get back ahead. Normally our race pace is a bit better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Piastri admitted to a messy qualifying lap: \u201cA pretty scruffy lap, to be honest, I just didn\u2019t really get it together. In some ways I feel a bit fortunate to be third. But I think the pace in the car is good and it\u2019s not like it\u2019s been a disastrous day at all. Just been a little bit of a messy lap that I can hopefully tidy up for tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norris set the tone early by topping Friday\u2019s practice sessions and leading the initial qualifying segments, but Verstappen\u2019s late push on soft tires stole the headlines.<\/p>\n

As the 100-kilometer sprint race approaches, McLaren will be counting on strong tire management and smart strategy to make a statement and hope that the hot Texan track could offer the British team\u00a0a rare opportunity to challenge Verstappen in front of the U.S. fans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen may have stolen the pole position for Saturday\u2019s U.S. Grand Prix sprint, but McLaren team principal…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":313241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[1406,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-313240","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-nascar","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115394866395054098","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}