McLaren, Stella: race pace was lacking against Ferrari

Total Perez revived in this first race and, indeed, compared to last year’s Suzuka, behind Verstappen there are two Ferraris and not two McLarens. It is another indicator of the growth produced by the SF-24 compared to the McLaren which had its best weekend of the last 5 months according to Suzuka qualifications.

The Japanese GP ends, however, with a Norris third on the grid and just fifth at the finish line. The question of the full speed of the car in the race, the question (also) of the time associated with the second pit stop. The choice to stop at the same time as Leclerc canceled out the potential late-race advantage of the cleaner hard tire compared to Leclerc on the one-stop approach.

The main problem: the speed of the race

Andrea Stella put the results of the race first on the speed of the car on the race course and on the card test in comparison with Norris the odds with Sainz (who accepted 9″) and Perez.Â

“There were no problems. The final position shows the order of competition on speed. We tried to focus on the platform Stopping first, making sure we maintain the position in front of Carlos and attacking Perez”Stella’s words at the end of the race.

“In the end, there wasn’t enough speed in the car, it’s fair to say that. It shows our competitiveness at this stage of the season.Â

Excellent work by Charles and Ferrari, which made only one stop possible. For us it was not possible and in any case it was not the fastest strategy. Ferrari were good at keeping tires for a long time. But it wasn’t a matter of one or two stops, it was a matter of the speed of the car.”

Lando’s second chance was very short

Norris made his first stop on lap 11, 4 laps ahead of Perez and Sainz, changed a solid tire and stopped on lap 26 for the second time: 7 laps ahead of Perez and 10 ahead of Sainz. Stopping at the same time as Leclerc, who was in a slipstream and who could have overtaken him by staying longer on the track with a set of hard tires and benefiting from the third chain on new tires.

“We found ourselves a little short of optionsbecause when we stopped Lando at the start we knew that Ferrari was ready to slow us downso we wanted to get ahead of the game”, Stella further explores strategic options. “We had two sets of hard tires and we could have stopped early: we wanted to see if it was possible to aim for the podium and we also tried if it was possible to beat Perez. I think it was worth a try.

In the end this put us in a race that was a bit far from a good race time, but I think it was worth a try, we’re glad we wanted to try and Lando to get on the podium.”