That charging drive through the field by Max Verstappen at the Großen Preis von Sao Paulo 2026 left everyone talking, including McLaren team principal Andrea Stella, as Motorsport.com Deutschland reports. Starting all the way back from the 21. grid slot, the Red-Bull-Pilot pulled off a brilliant recovery to finish in second place right behind race winner Lando Norris.
According to the McLaren team boss, the opening phase of the race was simply unbelievable and ultimately laid the foundation for that charge. Straight after the first lap alone, Verstappen had already clawed his way up to the 13. spot, before climbing to the 11. position by the end of the second tour. Stella admits that the threat from Max felt genuinely serious in those opening laps, noting how vital it was to get the tires into the right operating window immediately.
During the formation lap, nobody really managed to get proper temperature into their rubber, meaning the cars and drivers capable of generating heat instantly held a massive advantage. That strength belonged clearly to Max, but also to the Ferrari-Pilot Lewis Hamilton, who surged forward even harder from his 20. starting position to grab ninth place already by the end of the first lap. Hamilton later got stuck behind McLaren-Pilot Oscar Piastri before his tires seemingly overheated, but Stella remained deeply impressed by the raw talent on display.
Stella points out that conditions at the start of the race clearly suited both Ferrari and Red Bull, drawing parallels to the wet qualifying session on Saturday where McLaren looked strong in heavy standing water before losing ground in Q2 as the track dried out. Sunday's grand prix presented a similar puzzle in finding a car setup that worked evenly across every changing condition. Lando Norris struggled more at the beginning, but the team eventually unlocked strong grip on the Intermediates and later on the Soft tires, where Lando displayed blistering late-stint pace.
Other drivers experienced the exact opposite swing, such as Kimi Antonelli, who showed strong pace at the end of his Soft stint but lost ground after struggling early on. Stella describes the event as fascinating because every single competitor battled with tires either running too cold or overheating at various points with no clear pattern. All teams will now head back with mountains of data to decode from a wild weekend in Brazil.
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