Why McLaren Struggles to Find Consistency in the Pit Lane
McLaren entered the 2025 Formula 1 season with one of the most competitive cars on the grid to date. Drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have had front-running pace all season, and the team has positioned itself as a genuine threat to Red Bull and Ferrari, already winning the 2025 Constructors’ Championship with six races left in the season. However, despite the speed of the MCL39, one recurring weakness has been the team's pit stop execution. McLaren has been plagued by pit stop problems ranging from slow tyre changes to inconsistent timing. Modern Formula 1 is a sport where tenths of a second can absolutely define results, and losing two or three seconds during a stop can completely alter the outcome of a race. These struggles have already cost McLaren valuable track positions and points.
The issue first became apparent at the season opener in Bahrain, where Norris endured a lengthy stop after serving a time penalty, while Piastri’s crew also recorded slower-than-average times. As the season has progressed, more mistakes have been made in the pit lane and slower times have been recorded. For example, at the Dutch Grand Prix, Piastri consistently had a pit stop time one second or more faster than Norris’s time. During the Italian Grand Prix, there was a four-second difference between the pit stop speeds, with Piastri’s being 1.9 seconds and Norris’s being 5.9 seconds.
Norris’s stops on average have been much worse than Piastri’s. Since Silverstone, Landos' average pit stop time is about 4.01 seconds, while stops from his teammate have been much quicker, averaging about 2.85 seconds. Some chalk it up to luck, or bad luck, with which stop goes wrong, which tyre station is problematic, or even how stops are sequenced. However, these stops have recently been hindering Norris’s ability to show consistent top results.
Team principal Andrea Stella has acknowledged the problem publicly, admitting that McLaren must improve its hardware and processes to achieve greater reliability. The team has been trialing adjustments to wheel guns, wheel nuts, and procedural drills to iron out errors. Stella insists the issue is not down to favoritism or driver-specific crew assignments, but rather inconsistencies in execution under pressure. For a team fighting for wins, these pit stop troubles are more than just an inconvenience. In a season where Red Bull, Ferrari, and Mercedes are separated by fine margins, losing time in the pits can be the difference between a victory and finishing off the podium. Unless McLaren finds consistency in its pit stops, their impressive car and driver lineup may continue to be undermined by one of the smallest but most decisive elements of Formula 1, possibly resulting in a loss of the 2025 Drivers’ Championship.
