It was perhaps not the performance McLaren had hoped for at the Japanese Grand Prix, especially considering the high expectations after a promising qualifying.
Starting third, Lando Norris appeared to have a strong chance of securing a back to back podium finish. However, he ultimately lost out—not only to Carlos Sainz but also Charles Leclerc, who executed an impressive recovery drive with a daring one-stop strategy, climbing from eight to fourth.
“When we stopped Lando at the start, we kind of knew that Ferrari were ready to go to undercut us, so we wanted to play preventatively,” said team principal Andrea Stella.
“We had two sets of hards, so we could stop early, and in stopping Lando early, we wanted to see, ‘can we go for the podium?’ And we even tried to see can we beat Perez, so I thought it was worthwhile, trying that.
“Ultimately this put us on a race which might have been slightly unpreferred from an overall time point of view, but I think it was very worthwhile trying. So on Lando’s side, we are happy that we wanted to try for the podium.”
Norris was heard questioning the timing of his second stop over team radio when he was brought into the pits directly behind Leclerc on lap 27. He stayed behind the Ferrari driver for the remainder of the race.
“The timing of the second stop was forced by Leclerc,” Stella said of the decision. “And also there was Carlos approaching Lando, so Carlos would have overtaken Lando, and once Carlos overtakes Lando, Lando loses time, and then he ends up behind Hamilton and Russell.
“Because when you race so many cars, you kind of have to consider multiple implications. It’s not like you’re racing only one car—and I mean, I’m not sure how fun it is for spectators, but for us it makes the race quite complex, in terms of who you are actually fighting.”
Stella conceded that Ferrari’s superior pace ultimately proved decisive: “If we look at the final classification, it goes in the order of car competitiveness.”
Despite missing out on the podium, Stella remained positive: “We are happy, we are third best scoring team once again, consolidating the third position in the championship, that’s a positive outcome.
“I think you can do something against Ferrari with today’s level of competitiveness, only if you are in a track in which you can keep people behind. But here the degradation is so high and the overtaking is relatively possible, therefore you really need…the finishing order normally is just the car pace, unless you have really something going wrong.
“So I don’t think today it was possible to do much more, to finish on the podium in particular.
“Maybe with Lando, if we had given up attempting to finish on a podium, we could have finished ahead of Leclerc. That’s, if anything, the only opportunity in hindsight that could have come to us, but it would have meant giving up a podium finish, which we were not ready to do.”
Stella admitted that, if he could go back, he would have taken that route: “Yes, 100%.”
Asked whether McLaren had at any point considered pulling off a one-stop strategy à la Leclerc, Stella said: “With us having two sets of hards, the one-stop wasn’t a consideration.
“It was actually a consideration under red flag. Even when we saw Mercedes starting on a hard, we thought maybe they’re going to try a double hard, but the degradation is too high and even Mercedes, they need to go on a two-stop.
“I think the one-stop, while it looks attractive because you do one stop less, is a slower strategy. And if you stay on an optimal two, you regain all the time, just because of how high the degradation is. So, Ferrari makes it work, good for them, but it’s not like attempting a one-stop, you gain race time. Race time comes with car pace.”
