Max Verstappen converted his pole position into a victory ahead of both McLaren’s in the Japanese Grand Prix.
The Dutchman angled his Red Bull towards Lando Norris at the start and managed to get a good start into the first corner, holding position which gave him the advantage of clean air at the start of the race.
It was fairly uneventful at the front as drivers managed their rear tyres, with Norris briefly chipping away at Verstappen’s lead before dropping back when he hit the dirty air.
With Oscar Piastri in third place it looked like McLaren was biding their time before the first pit stop and try to gamble with their drivers by either staying out a lap longer than Verstappen or trying an undercut.
McLaren eventually pitted Norris at the same time as Verstappen, while Piastri pitted a lap earlier and came out in traffic. Discussing their strategy while commentating on Sky Sports F1, former F1 driver and 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve criticised their decision to keep Norris out.
McLaren should have stayed in clean air with Lando Norris
Verstappen’s main strength in qualifying was his superior straight-line speed, which translated in the race as he was quicker than Norris in the speed traps.
McLaren has always focused on getting their drivers in clean air to exploit strategy, however, they did not do that with either Norris or Piastri at Suzuka. Villeneuve felt this was effectively where they lost the race to Verstappen and accused them of not having a winning attitude.
Villeneuve: “If you look at the race now, the only intelligent team so far is Mercedes. Antonelli, his lap times are only six-tenths slower than Verstappen and Norris on new hards. Why would you stop Norris [early]? Why not take a gamble, you have two drivers out there. It’s like they’re trying not to win, and you need a winning attitude when you want to win.”
Croft: “It does seem counterintuative to do exactly what your teammate has done, when trying to get close to the Red Bull on track is proving problamatic.”
Villeneuve: “You need to want to win.”
Damon Hill criticises ‘too predictable’ McLaren strategy
Villeneuve was not the only driver who felt McLaren went too conservative with their strategy, with 1996 world champion Damon Hill also branding it “too predictable” in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
“Interesting comments on McLaren’s strategy. Too predictable? Too defensive? To conservative? Not adventurous enough? Anything else?” said Hill.
McLaren managed a quicker pit stop than Red Bull with Norris, which enabled the Briton to emerge from his pit box alongside Verstappen.
Norris took to the grass as the pit lane narrowed, leading to him losing significant ground at pit exit. Despite reporting that he was squeezed by Verstappen over team radio, the FIA stewards took no further action after investigating the incident.
Mclaren would later find themselves under pressure to swap their cars by Piastri in the final 10 races, but they told him to hold station despite lapping faster than Norris.
