Mark Hughes revisits the race that gave McLaren team principal Andrea Stella a sleepless night ahead of this year's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: how victory in 2025 was forged from a Ferrari failure 15 years earlier
Stella and Alonso left Abu Dhabi empty-handed after a nightmare 2010 GP. The story was very different for the McLaren team boss in 2025
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said that he did not initially sleep very well last Saturday night on the eve of the Abu Dhabi title-decider. Hardly surprising. Not only was he trying to facilitate a McLaren driver becoming world champion, which would make it the first time since 1998 McLaren had swept both drivers’ and constructors’ titles, but he’d been here before. And it hadn’t worked out well for him. Here he was again, 15 years later, at the same place and with the same three-driver dynamic to complicate things.
Back in 2010, he’d been Fernando Alonso‘s race engineer at Ferrari. They came into the Abu Dhabi weekend leading by eight points after a fantastic season of over-achievement against a faster car, the Red Bull driven by Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel, both of whom were still in contention to take the crown. Lewis Hamilton was a fourth mathematical contender but it would have taken a miraculous series of problems for all three of his rivals.
Last weekend, Stella was at least on the numerically-favoured team, with two of his drivers in contention against Max Verstappen, who’d enjoyed a fantastic season of over-achievement in a slower car. He was helped in this — just as Alonso had been in 2010 — by the two guys in the other team having taken points from each other through the season.
Numerically, the bigger threat to Alonso’s title hopes in 2010 was Webber, who was seven points ahead of Vettel. But Vettel was the man in form around the Yas Marina circuit as he screamed his 2.4-litre Renault V8-powered RB6 to pole. Alonso was third (behind Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren) and Webber fifth (behind Jenson Button‘s McLaren).
Vettel won the 2010 title against the odds
Grand Prix Photo
Vettel surged into the lead with Alonso fourth, demoted a place by Button. A first lap safety car (for a Michael Schumacher/Tonio Liuzzi collision) brought Petrov – among others – in to change tyre compound, and he was now in place to run to the end. Webber was behind Alonso but glanced the wall and damaged a tyre, making him an early pitstop visitor and potentially in place to undercut ahead of Alonso as he rejoined on his fresh tyres.
Up ahead of Alonso, Ferrari observed that Vettel and the two McLarens were both beginning to drop off their earlier pace as they encountered front tyre graining. Alonso was complaining of the very same thing. In the heat of the moment, Ferrari figured if it didn’t bring in Alonso soon, he would be undercut by Webber — and thereby be pushed down to fifth, which wouldn’t be enough to win Alonso the title if Vettel won the race. Also, coming in potentially would allow Alonso to undercut Button if the latter continued to struggle with the graining. Alonso pitted.
The good news was that he rejoined still in front of Webber. The bad news was twofold: he was now behind the Renault of Petrov, who had no intention of stopping again. His lap 1 stop had effectively undercut him past the Ferrari. Even worse: the early lap graining suffered by Vettel and the McLarens soon cleared itself up and they were able to up their pace once more — leaving Alonso far behind, unable to put a pass on the Renault, and allowing themselves to pull out of undercut range.
Vettel duly won (from Hamilton and Button) and Alonso remained seventh, throwing an angry hand gesture to Petrov on the slow-down lap. Vettel had just become the sport’s youngest-ever champion.
Being stuck behind Petrov cost Alonso the 2010 title
Grand Prix Photo
Ferrari was widely criticised in the inevitable hindsight pile-on. Team boss Stefano Domenicali summarised it simply: “Trying to be smart and covering two cars is much harder than trying to cover one. It was a mistake.”
“Mark was gaining time on us, so it was a choice we had to make,” said Alonso. “We either decide to put and stay in front of Webber or not stop and he gets in front of us.”
Mark Hughes explains how McLaren’s pre-planned lap-one swap and split-tyre strategy blunted Verstappen’s threat and laid the groundwork for Norris’s title-winning drive
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Mark Hughes
With Verstappen on pole last weekend ahead of Norris and Piastri, even Norris’ 12-point lead — he needed to finish only third — wasn’t enough to assuage Stella’s worries. After all, Alonso had needed only fourth and had qualified third. The tyre strategies were going to be crucial and that spectre of front graining — the very thing which had tripped up Ferrari in 2010 — was very much an issue. All the cars were hovering on the verge of it but the McLaren seemed particularly susceptible on the medium, and Norris freely admits he finds it difficult to deal with graining.
The McLaren strategy meetings went through the myriad combinations of what they could do to use their two-against-one dynamic to strategic advantage over Verstappen. But nothing had been decided as Stella struggled to sleep on Saturday night.
Then amid the whirring thoughts, he settled upon what he thought would be the ideal: start Piastri on hards, in the expectation everyone else would be on mediums. Have the medium-tyre Norris allow Piastri ahead — preferably on the opening lap — leaving Piastri to push Verstappen hard and forcing him to pit earlier than he would otherwise do. That way, Verstappen would not be able to back up Norris into the pack. All Norris would need to do would stay third, look after his tyres at a gentle pace. It all made sense.
Finally, Stella was able to get some sleep. He didn’t even have a nightmare — either during his sleep or in the race the following day. The ghost of 2010 had been exorcised.
