Lando Norris was frustrated in Las Vegas in 2024 – the graining was extreme – team boss Stella explains why the race is likely to be completely different in 2025
“It’s just very difficult, there’s very little grip.
I feel like I could drive a road car faster than we are at the moment,” said Lando Norris, expressing his dissatisfaction with his McLaren Formula 1 car after practice for the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix. The race in the desert state of Nevada turned out to be one of the two worst in McLaren’s championship season.
Norris and Oscar Piastri finished outside the top 5 on both Saturday and Sunday, seven-tenths of a second behind the leaders in qualifying.
Both struggled with graining on their Pirelli tires and finished the race more than 40 seconds behind winner George Russell.
However, Norris was only 27 seconds behind before a late pit stop earned him the point for the fastest lap.
Las Vegas will be a key round of the 2025 championship, as Max Verstappen has reduced his deficit in the drivers’ standings to less than 40 points behind the McLaren drivers.
This means he remains in the title race, regardless of what happens at the next round in Interlagos, Brazil. McLaren team principal Andrea Stella expects his team to perform better this time around.
That means he remains in the title fight, regardless of what happens at the next round at Interlagos in Brazil. McLaren team principal Andrea Stella expects his team to perform better this time around.
“Las Vegas has proven to be challenging for McLaren overall,” commented the team boss. “Last year, we weren’t competitive. We had to learn during the race and just try to make some changes to see if we could stop the graining.”
“This year, the tires are much less prone to graining than last year, so from that perspective, it could be a slightly different Vegas,” said Stella. “It will be interesting to see.”
Team must find the maximum
Stella adds that McLaren will focus on getting the maximum out of its car, as obvious as that may sound, as the team has arguably failed to do so at times – such as on tracks like Baku, where McLaren struggled.
“I don’t think there will be any problems for Lando and Oscar in terms of track layouts in the next four races,” adds the Italian. “If anything, we need to make sure that, from McLaren’s point of view, we are able to extract the full performance that is in the car, as we managed to do here in Mexico. We have some doubts that we actually managed to do that in some of the previous races.”