Lando Norris walked away from the 2025 F1 Japanese GP with a strong second-place finish, yet his post-race reflections were laced with both encouragement and a sense of what might have been. The McLaren driver shadowed Max Verstappen for much of the race but ultimately couldn’t find a way past, as strategy decisions and track position dictated the outcome at a circuit notorious for its overtaking difficulties.
“Tough” day for Norris at the F1 Japanese GP
Norris summed up his afternoon succinctly: “Tough.
“I mean, I could see Max quite clearly for the whole race, but just couldn’t make any inroads from that point onwards.”
With Verstappen maintaining track position after taking pole in damp conditions on Saturday, Norris felt that his race was somewhat compromised before the lights even went out.
“So I think him in clean air was enough to stay in that position, and he didn’t make any mistakes. He drove a good race. So, I don’t know, like he said, the race was won yesterday in hindsight, and I guess we always kind of know the better position you start, the more chance you have of winning.”
Despite feeling that McLaren might have had a marginal edge in pace, the Brit was realistic about the limits of what he could do.
“I think our pace was probably slightly better, but not enough to get through the dirty air, kind of get into the DRS, and then passing is a whole other story because it’s pretty much impossible to pass here.”
A missed strategic opportunity
The critical point in the race came during the pit window, where Norris and Verstappen pitted on the same lap, removing any chance of the undercut or overcut working in McLaren’s favour.
“Maybe we could have tried a bit more with strategy,” he said. “Overcut or undercut—we just boxed on the same lap for some reason. So some things we’ll discuss, but good points for us as a team. Decent points for me. Of course, would have liked a little bit more, but have to take second sometimes.”
When pressed further on the thinking behind the pit strategy, Norris elaborated on the difficult balancing act the team faced.
“I mean, we obviously planned some things beforehand and we kind of know what to expect. But yeah, hindsight is a wonderful thing. I think probably could have gone longer, could have tried going earlier, yes, but then you’re at risk of Safety Cars and other things.
“So it’s easy to say, ‘Yeah, you should have done that.’ But if I box three laps earlier or two laps earlier and the Safety Car comes out, then we look stupid. So can’t win them all and we take it on the chin.”
That said, he did admit that McLaren might have erred on the conservative side.
Did McLaren play it too safe during the F1 Japanese GP?
“I don’t know. I probably should have tried to undercut, I think,” reflected Norris.
“The thing is there’s always the Safety Car risk and so forth. I think I could have gone longer because I don’t think I would have lost position. So that wasn’t off the cards, but yeah, I think we probably should have just tried to run the card and then tried something different.”
However, he acknowledged that even with a different call, Verstappen may have still had the upper hand:
“Honestly, I think the undercut is not easy here because the Hard is not mega in the first sector. So whether that even would have worked, I’m unsure. And Max still always had a little buffer to me. So even if I did have a good out lap, I don’t think it was enough to probably get past anyway.”
Lando Norris was “trying to cut the grass”
There was a brief moment of conflict when Norris and Verstappen exited the pits side-by-side, with Norris running wide onto the grass. But the incident was more light-hearted than controversial.
“Yeah, I mean, like you said, the guys just did a very good pit stop under pressure. It was our one opportunity to try and get a bit closer,” Norris explained.
“I wasn’t even trying to race Max, I was just trying to cut the grass like he said! Didn’t even know he was there, actually. So no, nothing. He had the position, and he had the right to do what he did, so fair play.”
While McLaren impressed in the high-speed corners of Suzuka, Norris pinpointed slow-speed performance as the team’s Achilles’ heel—one that cost them dearly in both qualifying and the race.
“High-speed we were very, very strong, and I think definitely the strongest car out there. Slow speed—we’re quite a chunk off the Red Bull, and that’s where we lost yesterday in qualifying. So we lost again consistently in the race today. So yeah, a lot of areas we have to try to work on.”
Moving on to Bahrain
With Bahrain on the horizon, Norris expects McLaren’s strengths to be slightly neutralised due to the track’s layout.
“I mean, it’s always so difficult to say. Probably yes,” he said, when asked whether Red Bull would be a similar threat. “I think after today, our weakness was the slow-speed compared to them. There’s a lot less high-speed, so we’re kind of losing some of our strengths and we’re going more into our weaknesses.”
Still, he praised his and Oscar Piastri’s efforts across the weekend.
“I feel like between Oscar and myself, we got a lot out of the car yesterday. It was probably a little bit more, yes, but both our theoreticals were not that far ahead.
And as for Red Bull? “Max is doing a good job and Red Bull seemed to maybe have caught up a little bit. But they’ve also not been that bad the whole season,” he said.
“When you look at Australia, he was fighting for a win. When you look at China, he wasn’t miles away. And this weekend he’s done very good. So I expect him to be challenging us every weekend.”
A Championship battle between Norris, Piastri and Verstappen after the F1 Japanese GP?
With Verstappen, Norris, and Piastri all having taken either a win or pole so far this season, many are beginning to whisper about a three-way title fight. Norris cautiously agreed.
“Yeah, seems like it. I mean, I still think at times we’re going to see some more competition from the guys behind. Charles was not that much slower. I mean, there was a bigger gap, but I think his second stint on the Hards [tyres] was just as quick as mine. I didn’t think we dropped him at all.”
He also highlighted the pace of George Russell, suggesting that a better qualifying could have yielded a different result.
“George has been quick this weekend. I don’t know, maybe again, they struggled a bit more in Q3 for whatever reason and then therefore in the race. But I’m sure like if you put a George starting on pole today, I think he probably still would have won the race.”
Ultimately, though, Norris believes the top three teams currently have the edge.
“At the minute, I think McLaren, Red Bull, and probably between us three, we’re doing a better job than the rest.”
Norris’ second-place finish at the F1 Japanese GP, marked another step forward in his 2025 campaign, but his words reflected a weekend full of ‘what ifs’. Whether it was qualifying position, pit strategy, or outright pace, the margins were tight—but not tight enough to tip the scales in his favour this time.
“Of course, would have liked a little bit more,” he said. “But have to take second sometimes.”
