“You give me the opportunity to actually tell you a story, and the story is that Lando’s race engineer proactively told Oscar’s race engineer that we struggled to pass Lewis because we attempted it twice in Turn 27, and he passed us back in Turn 1, so make sure that Oscar knows that and he gives it a go directly in Turn 1,” recounted Stella.
“I was very proud on the pit wall to hear that. I didn’t need to prompt anything. I was just a spectator and it’s an example about the great teamwork and team spirit that we have here at McLaren. So well done to Will Joseph, well done to Tom Stallard, well done to the team on the pit wall.”
Even with this advice, Piastri elected to make his move around the outside of Turn 21, kicking up dust and discarded rubber as he ventured onto a part of the track scarcely used.
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As spectacular as the move was, however, Stella insisted he had remained calm throughout, adding: “For me, it was one race like Baku [last year]. I think in Baku, it was very tense with Leclerc. But somehow, I was so calm, because it is one of those that you know that Oscar is in complete control and he knows very well what he is doing.
“So personally, I didn’t have any kind of particular exciting moment there. He was very confident, he was very in control of the situation and like I said, I think he also knew that Turn 1 was his chance.
“I also personally think that Hamilton is a very fair competitor, and he knows that if it wasn’t that corner, it would have been the next corner where there was an opportunity. So I don’t think he was braking to create the most disruption to Oscar’s lap. I was relatively calm.”