McLaren boss makes encouraging admission after Singapore sprint qualifying

Following a chaotic and highly contested Sprint qualifying shootout at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, the 2026 Formula 1 championship battle appears closer than ever. Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen ultimately secured the sprint pole position, but he was closely followed by Mercedes driver George Russell in second, Scuderia Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in third, and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in fourth.

For McLaren team principal Andrea Stella, the incredibly diverse starting grid comes with a massive sigh of relief.

A return to form

After McLaren struggled with unpredictable vehicle dynamics and incredibly narrow set-up windows during the previous rounds in Azerbaijan and Malaysia, seeing four different constructors occupy the top four spots on the grid proved to the McLaren garage that the competitive order has stabilised.

“It was an interesting Qualifying session, full of drama, which confirmed just how closely matched the frontrunners are,” Andrea Stella explained to the media following the session. “It’s no coincidence that there are four different cars in the top four positions.”

Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren

While Oscar Piastri secured the second row and his team-mate Lando Norris settled for fifth place just 0.055 seconds behind Leclerc’s time, Stella remains highly optimistic about their fundamental race pace moving forward.

“For our part, we’re reasonably satisfied with the result and the level of performance shown, as they’re a sign that, at least on this track, we’re back in a situation similar to that seen before Baku, when the differences in grid positions were relatively small,” the team principal noted. “All things considered, it’s a good starting point for the rest of the weekend, and we hope to be in contention for podiums.”

The SQ3 soft tyre gamble

Navigating the shortened sprint qualifying format is notoriously tricky, especially when track evolution aggressively ramps up under the Singapore floodlights. After the team survived a messy SQ1 session where late traffic almost ruined their initial laps, the McLaren pitwall opted for an aggressive, unconventional run plan during the final SQ3 shootout.

Rather than relying on a single, do-or-die flying lap on the mandatory red-walled soft tyres, the team sent both cars out for multiple attempts.

“In SQ3, we decided to set two flying laps to allow the drivers to make the most of the switch from Medium to Soft tyres, particularly given that even the softer compounds are showing relatively limited degradation this year,” Andrea Stella revealed.

Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Lando Norris, McLaren

The focus now immediately shifts to Saturday’s Sprint race, where McLaren will use the shorter distance to finalise their mechanical set-ups without the pressure of a full-length Grand Prix.

“Our attention now turns to the Sprint tomorrow evening, where we will continue to learn more about our car in these conditions, before preparing for Grand Prix Qualifying tomorrow night,” Andrea Stella concluded.

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