Jacques Villeneuve criticizes McLaren’s strategy, claiming they lacked a winning mindset and didn’t take the right risks against Verstappen.
Villeneuve has expressed disappointment that McLaren F1 didn’t mix up their strategy to challenge Max Verstappen and worries about a sense of stagnation among the team’s strategists and leadership.
Villeneuve believes McLaren’s decision to pit Lando Norris at the same time as Verstappen wasn’t ideal, especially when Oscar Piastri had pitted a lap earlier. Despite the strategy, no undercut or overcut seemed to work during the race.
“Why pit Norris when your teammate has already stopped? Why not take a chance? You’ve got two drivers on the track,” Villeneuve said. “It’s as if they were trying not to win. To win, you need a winning mentality. You need to want it.”
“You can’t just play defense. You can’t panic and be afraid to do what might be right. If the undercut had worked, as Stella said, because the out-lap was quick, Piastri would have overtaken Norris, but that didn’t happen.”
“They didn’t seem too disappointed, which is strange because they came here expecting to finish first and second, and they didn’t. They were beaten, not because they were slow, but because they were outperformed by a team and a driver who were simply better than them – and that should hurt.”
“If you pit on the same lap, you’re obviously not going to overtake, unless something goes wrong in the pit stop. At best, you try and swap positions with your teammate, but at least you’ve got a chance.”
Following a mixed weekend for Lewis Hamilton against Charles Leclerc at Ferrari, the 1997 World Champion stressed the importance for Hamilton to take control of the team: “This isn’t a short-term project for a year. The first thing he needs to do, and he’s almost done it, is to take charge of the team. Make the team his. Take it away from Leclerc.”
“He has to do it because all winter, it was all about Lewis, Lewis, and Ferrari. That’s kind of pushed Leclerc into the shadows. But then, he had to prove himself on track. When you take pole, you have to win. The team is his. When you’re Lewis Hamilton, you can’t just settle for one win.”
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Hamilton Must Own Ferrari to Win, Says Villeneuve Hamilton Must Own Ferrari to Win, Says Villeneuve