Stella: Not sure how much Red Bull were pushing in Qatar

Oscar Piastri was less than five seconds behind Verstappen at the chequered flag in Qatar last Sunday, which must be the smallest winning margin for the 2023 Formula 1 World Champion. Lando Norris was one second further behind in third.

The race in Qatar saw the FIA mandate a maximum number of laps for every set of tyres (18 laps maximum if the tyre were new) after Pirelli revealed their tyres were getting bashed by the kerbs of the Lusail International Circuit.

That meant the teams did not have much of a say in strategy, and Verstappen claimed that prevented Red Bull from exploiting their RB19 fully with its ability to preserve tyres.

Stella also admitted how the strategies played out may have flattered McLaren a bit, he said: "I think first of all the leader's strategy is a little sub-optimal from a race time point of view, because it is the safest strategy when you add in the margin.

"It protects you from a late safety car, so there is a flattering element in the fact that they were on a strategy that loses time.

"Secondly, I am not sure how much they were pushing. I was certainly perceiving that maybe Max didn’t have so much in hand like he had other times," he added.

The Italian, however, was encouraged by the way his team's MCL60 behaved in terms of tyre degradation, he commented: "This was a decently flat-out race, because the duration of the stint first of all was prescribed in its maximum duration.

"Then, the medium and the hard tyres were actually behaving in a sensible way, so they were allowing the drivers to push.

"I was expecting at some stage of Friday, after we saw how the tyres were behaving, that this would have been a race of controlling the tyres. Instead, for us at least it was a race of pushing and this is encouraging.

"We will see the next races whether this is because we have improved the car, and it allows us to be more gentle on the tyres and therefore have better degradation or whether it's simply the circumstances associated with this event," Stella maintained.

Mercedes showed some decent pace in Qatar, George Russell's drive to fourth after the first-lap crash with teammate Lewis Hamilton who retired being proof of that, but McLaren were clearly the fastest car behind Red Bull.

But Stella is cautious that the nature of the Lusail track may have allowed the MCL60 to flex its muscles, and warned from underestimating Mercedes, he noted: "Mercedes were not far at all.

"George was very strong in terms of race pace and it is a pity for them that they lost all the time at the start, and they had that unfortunate situation. Otherwise, they would’ve been there with us, I think.

"This track is a very suitable track for our car, so I wouldn’t expect for the coming races that this is necessarily the pecking order," the McLaren boss concluded.

McLaren are now chasing Aston Martin for fourth in the 2023 F1 Constructors' Championship, the gap between the two being just 11 points. They are 79 points down on Ferrari in third though.