andrea stella explains why mclaren had already discussed a potential driver swap before the cota race: "we had seen during the weekend that lando was a little bit faster than oscar. this is a track in which lando excels and is one of the tracks in which oscar instead struggles a little bit more. so this year i think in particular for oscar is tricky because oscar’s superpower is to build, once he creates references he can really effectively build lap after lap. but here, every lap is different. so these are the conditions that challenge oscar. and actually are the conditions where lando uses his own superpower which is being very adaptive to the conditions especially as the car slides. so given this context we discussed before the race that if lando was behind oscar and oscar could not keep up with the cars ahead then we could have given lando a chance or an opportunity to see if we could attack the cars ahead, and that’s what we did. it’s a way of demonstrating that as a team and together with the drivers we care about the interest of the team which was always the conversation that we have had. and especially after singapore, we reinforced how much it’s important that we all together help mclaren go back to the position that we want to have, which is oscar and lando first row in qualifying, and fighting for the win. and then we manage the internal competition. but up to then, all together we need to sustain the trajectory of mclaren back to the front." [pit debrief]

andrea stella revealed that mclaren had already discussed the possibility of a position swap during a pre race meeting [the race]