Stella admits that McLaren 'did not have enough pace at any stage of the race'

The papaya-coloured team have made a dominant start to the 2025 season, but at Imola, they had to settle for second place with Lando Norris and third place with Oscar Piastri, with Max Verstappen and Red Bull shaking up the standings with an impressive win.

At the first corner of the race, Verstappen went around the outside past Piastri with a sumptuous move to take the lead. The Australian seemed to block George Russell, allowing the Dutchman to brake later and take the lead.

Afterwards, Verstappen pulled away from the competition, never relinquishing his lead throughout the race, despite a late safety car throwing a spanner in the works after building up a 20-second lead.

Before the lights went out at Imola, many expected McLaren to continue with their imperious race pace that has been shown in the 2025 season so far.

However, that was not the case, with Verstappen and Red Bull having much more joy compared to the British team, something Stella also saw as the race went on.

"I think today, like I said before, we attempted to unlock various scenarios to try and beat Max, but at no stage did I think we had enough race pace," the Italian said to several media sources, including GPblog, in the paddock at Imola.

When the safety car released the grid for the final ten laps of the race, there was the potential for Norris, who was in P3, to be let through by Piastri, who was on the older tyres, to try and chase down Verstappen in the end.

However, that was not the call made by Stella and the McLaren pit wall, a desion defended by the team boss.

"Even with the final safety car, Lando could pass Oscar and try to push as much as possible, and, pretty much, Max was responding to Lando. Here, to overtake, you need seven or eight-tenths of a second, so I think it's what it is. The main factor remains the swap of positions and the outcome of lap 1," concluded Stella.