F1 teams' response to McLaren decision that even Oscar Piastri questioned at Canadian GP

Kimi Antonelli extended his lead at the top of the Formula 1 world drivers' championship with a fourth successive win at Sunday's Canadian GP.

The Italian teenager finished first at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal ahead of Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton in second and Red Bull's Max Verstappen in third, and was untroubled by McLaren pair Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.

Mercedes have taken the chequered flag at all five Grands Prix in the 2026 season so far, while McLaren's best performance to date came at the Miami GP, where Norris finished second and Piastri third

Both were well off the pace in Canada. Piastri finished in 11th place, while Norris retired citing a gearbox problem.

Yet Norris led from P3 after the first turn despite a tyre strategy that ultimately worked against him and his teammate.

Piastri and Norris started the GP on intermediate tyres in an attempt to capitalise on forecast rain at the circuit in Quebec.

Both McLarens switched to slicks within the first two laps and dropped to the back of the grid.

While McLaren weren't the only team to seek an advantage with a bold tyre call, the reaction elsewhere was one of surprise.

"To be honest, from the commentary box walking to here, I bumped into three drivers and four people, engineers, from different teams, whose opening words were, to me, ‘What on earth were McLaren doing?’" said former driver and Sky Sports analyst Karan Chandhok.

"And you can replace earth with a different type of word on every one of those. So, yeah, certainly nobody else I’ve spoken to thought the inters were a good idea, none of the top teams anyway."

Piastri defended McLaren's tyre choice in Montreal

The Australian conceded that the strategy made McLaren 'look like idiots' when it backfired so spectacularly, but defended the thinking behind the decision to go with inters from the start.

"It was a group call," Piastri confirmed.

"Between the anthem and getting in the car, it had gotten significantly wetter on the ground, and given how difficult getting to the grid was, I thought that the inters, if you could get temperature into them, would be faster.

"That was our whole thinking and then the rain stopped. So yeah, it was a bit of a shame. We thought we were doing the safer thing, and the right thing, and it wasn't."

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