Former Top Gear host and automotive journalist Chris Harris believes McLaren’s decision to start the Canadian Grand Prix on intermediate tyres was a logical gamble, but he has questioned why the team delayed pitting.
The Woking outfit raised eyebrows across the paddock in Montreal when it opted to fit intermediate tyres for the start of the race.
Lando Norris, who started from third on the grid, had a great start, taking the lead of the race and extending his lead to roughly two seconds by the end of the opening lap. But, with rain no longer expected, both Norris and his team-mate Oscar Piastri were forced to carry out early pitstops.
While the strategy has been heavily criticised, Harris argued that the underlying logic was sound given the specific track conditions.
Speaking on his podcast, Chris Harris on Cars, Harris praised the overall grand prix for delivering “real racing”.
“So the two things about the situation I found fascinating were that we had real racing as opposed to that sort of yo-yoing bungee thing where someone gets past and then someone else deploys a bit of totally ridiculous technology and appears to get straight back past them,” he explained.
“So, it felt like you could make overtakes stick and even though they were yo-yoing at the front, I felt that was just because they had equal pace. Actually, that’s not fair. I think Kimi [Antonelli] had more pace.
Lando Norris, McLaren
Photo by: Bryn Lennon / Formula 1 via Getty Images
“But it was totally engrossing racing. I’ll answer Manish’s point on the inters. Quite often, if you go to a demonstration of Formula 1 and they don’t have tyre warmers, if the car is going to do one or two laps, they will run it on an inter because it’s a much softer compound and over a couple of laps, they can have quite a big advantage over a slick.
“So I think McLaren’s gamble does look like madness on paper, but obviously, they had some info about the weather. But also, the track temperature was so low, I think they thought that they would get track position from the start, there would be a load of madness behind them and it almost guaranteed some sort of a shunt behind them.
“It was a gamble in terms of narrative, but I don’t think it was as big a punt as people thought. What I do find odd is that they didn’t change them straight away.”
Norris was ultimately forced to retire from the race due to a gearbox issue and Piastri finished in 11th.
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