Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris deliver verdict on McLaren Suzuka strategy

Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris have provided further explanation behind why the McLaren team didn’t reverse their drivers’ positions towards the latter stages of the Japanese Grand Prix. Describing the scenario as “big risk, low reward,” the Australian driver argued that the focus should have been on qualifying instead.

Despite requesting that the team let him pass team-mate Norris to attempt the overtake on Max Verstappen, Piastri has now confirmed that this would have probably not resulted in the victory. Speaking to the media during the drivers’ press conference in Bahrain, the 24-year-old commented on what could have been done to beat Verstappen:

“Qualifying ahead of Max was probably the key to that. We looked through it, I think it was pretty clear to see that you needed a very big case advantage to overtake on Sunday, and I think the best way to that, like I said, qualifying a bit better, but I think even in the race we were pretty limited with what we could do.

“I think we’ve spoken through a lot of the potential different scenarios we found ourselves in and what we actually develop differently and I think what we thought was, there was either a big element of risk with not much chance for reward.

“So, I think there was still some things that we could have done a little bit differently to try, and I think that the team would acknowledge that, but, I think also just putting into perspective how early we are on the season.

“And not giving away points unnecessarily to those behind us was important as well. We’ve gone through a lot of things, but ultimately, make sure you qualify where you should be.”

Team principal Andrea Stella explained to the media following the Japanese Grand Prix that the drivers needed to be eight-tenths faster than the car in front to make the overtake happen.

Norris also addressed the strategy calls in Suzuka, stating:

“There’s a lot of things in hindsight, nothing which didn’t come without risk, which was probably the biggest answer to things. I think it’s very easy, and even for me when I stepped out of the car and I looked at things, I wasn’t best pleased with how things looked, and maybe what felt like our approach to the whole thing.

“But nothing was a guarantee, you know, nothing was a guarantee that I would have passed Max. Nothing was a guarantee that the undercut would have been strong enough. I would have come out always in every moment in traffic and behind the car, so there was no guarantee for everything. So, however much people want to talk and say things and say how bad of a job we did, I disagree and I stand always by our our decisions as a team, and I have a lot of trust and faith that we always have our best interests at heart.

“Would I and have we reviewed what level of risk we wanna take in different scenarios, I think is probably our bigger question after last weekend. Would I be willing to take that risk of boxing behind more cars and go for the win, then yes. But, we still finished 2nd and 3rd, we still got more points in the constructors and I still had a good result as a driver for points. But I did lose out to Max and he’s my main competitor.”