Zak Mauger
The strategy calls that McLaren Formula 1 head Andrea Stella and the team made for Lando Norris in the “complex” Japanese Grand Prix have been defended.
Starting from the third position on the grid, Norris was the first of the leading drivers to pit, but as the race progressed, he was beaten by the Ferrari duo of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, finishing in fifth place; the latter went on to finish in fourth place from eighth on the grid with a one-stop strategy.
After the race, Norris said he could have run longer before his final pit stop instead of arriving at the same time as Leclerc, even if he acknowledged that the Ferraris were predicted to have a faster race pace.
Stella, however, argued that the team made the correct decisions in order to pursue an offensive plan that may have resulted in a podium finish.
“I believe we were somewhat limited in our choices since, upon stopping Lando at the beginning, we were aware that Ferrari was prepared to outbid us,” he stated.
Thus, we aimed to take preventative measures. We could quit early since we had two sets of hard, and by stopping early, we wanted to see if we could reach the podium. We even made an effort to see if we could defeat Perez.
“I felt it was worth a shot to try that.” In the end, this may have put us in a race that was not entirely ideal in terms of overall timing, but I believe it was well worth attempting. Therefore, Lando’s team is pleased that we attempted to place on the podium.
In response to Norris’s inquiry on the timing of his second pit stop, Stella stated that the team needed to monitor George Russell and Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes.
“Leclerc forced the timing of the second stop,” the man claimed. Carlos was also making his way toward Lando. Thus, Carlos would have passed Lando, and after Carlos passes Lando, Lando loses time and falls behind Russell and Hamilton.
“Because you have to think about a variety of implications when you race so many cars.” You’re not racing a single vehicle, after all.
“I’m not sure if it’s entertaining for onlookers, but for us, it complicates the race considerably in terms of who you’re really competing against.”
“I don’t think today it was possible to do much more, to finish on a podium in particular,” Stella responded when Autosport asked if there was anything the team could have done differently to defeat Leclerc. If we had given up trying to finish on a podium with Lando, perhaps we could have finished ahead of Leclerc.
In retrospect, that was the only chance that could have been available to us, but we weren’t prepared to forfeit a podium result for that.
Stella acknowledged that Oscar Piastri, who finished in eighth position after the Australia team fell to Russell in the final laps, had a more subdued race.
“I don’t think there were many different options today with Oscar,” he remarked. “The ultimate classification places the cars in order of competitiveness. It’s unfortunate, in my opinion, that Russell was able to take our place during the Oscar final lock-up.
“If not for Fernando [Alonso], who has performed exceptionally well, as he usually does, we would have finished ahead of Mercedes and that, as I mentioned, could pretty much be the finishing order. That, in my opinion, slightly changes the competitiveness of the car.”
He concluded the weekend by saying, “We are happy.” We have maintained our third-place standing in the championship by finishing as the third-best scoring squad once more. That’s a fruitful result.
