McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella has stated he is “not surprised” by Max Verstappen’s miraculous pole position during qualifying for the F1 Japanese GP, despite feeling as though his team missed an opportunity.
Qualifying at the Japanese GP truly came down to the last few seconds, as it looked almost certain McLaren’s Lando Norris would clinch pole for the race. However, during the final run of Q3, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen achieved the seemingly impossible and set a lap 0.012 seconds quicker than that of Norris.
Stella: There’s a reason Verstappen is a four-time world champion
Speaking to Sky Sports F1 after the session, Andrea Stella praised Max Verstappen’s performance as worthy of a four-time F1 world champion:
“Definitely hats off to Verstappen. He pulled off a lap which was quite impressive, considering the performance he had had until the last run of Q3.
“But, as you say, he’s the world champion four times and there’s a reason for that, so well done to him.”
The praise didn’t stop there. Stella went on to say in his print media session that, despite some inconsistencies, these particular conditions in Suzuka created the opportunity to set some of the fastest laps at that circuit. And if anyone was going to take advantage of it, he would expect it to be Verstappen:
“With Max, I have stopped being surprised. He is such an incredible driver and for me this is one of the many cases in which we have to acknowledge and say hats off to Max.
“Well done in putting together what was the potential of this car in conditions that were tricky, with the wind and the grip a little inconsistent, even if there was high grip. The lap times are actually, I think, the fastest times ever in Suzuka.”
He continued: “I discussed this with the engineers and we thought we are never gonna beat the 2019 cars, and instead this happened, which is good. It would have been good if it was a McLaren, but it’s Max.”
Stella: McLaren needed perfection in F1 Japanese GP qualifying
Despite a strong qualifying performance from the team, with drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri securing P2 and P3 respectively, Stella still thinks that pole position got away from them today:
“We seemed to have a very competitive car today. Strong laps by both Lando and Oscar in Q1 and Q2, in the first run of Q3 by Oscar so it looked like we were on the way to pole position. Lando managed to improve significantly on his second set [of tyres].”
“We were definitely in contention for pole position. Three cars [within] 40 milliseconds, which shows we are very competitive.”
Stella suggested that both drivers were missing a complete package while they put their laps together, but achieving perfection is a lot easier said than done:
“I’m sure Lando and Oscar will have had a few milliseconds here and there putting everything together, but putting everything together is easy to say on paper but it’s not easy to do when you are in the car, especially at such a track as this one in Suzuka.”
Stella: McLaren hoping for a wet race
The race tomorrow could end up being an interesting one, with grass fires having already affected the weekend sessions:
“There could be still quite a busy and eventful race ahead of us,” Stella said.
“The grass fire is a concern because [with] the rate of interruptions we have had during practice and qualifying, there could have been an impact for the race itself.
Still, Stella believes that the forecast of rain for tomorrow should work in McLaren’s favour:
“The rain will help. Even if it doesn’t rain during the race there should be enough water before the race.
“Apart from that, we will see. We have proven already in Australia that we can be quite competitive in wet conditions as well so we just have to be ready and take the opportunities that will come tomorrow.”
