Stella explains why McLaren’s hands were tied in strategic Japanese GP battle against Verstappen

Andrea Stella has blamed factors beyond McLaren’s control for the team’s inability to try an alternative strategy to topple Max Verstappen with either Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri at Suzuka.

Securing pole position on Saturday placed one hand on the race-winner’s trophy for Verstappen, with overtaking during the Japanese Grand Prix proving difficult, while there was significantly reduced tyre degradation.

Although it became quickly evident that a strategic gamble was the only opportunity for a change to occur at the front, McLaren played a straight hand with both cars – pitting Piastri on Lap 21 and Norris, at the same time as Verstappen, one lap later – instead of allowing Norris an opportunity to lap in clear air and attempt an overcut.

Asked why a last-minute decision to try this hadn’t been made when it became evident that Verstappen was heading into the pits, McLaren Team Principal Stella said: “I think the problem for Lando would be that he would have lost positions to some other cars, including Oscar because they had pitted and were faster.

Race Highlights: 2025 Japanese Grand Prix

“And if you stay out for 20 laps on a used medium, you cannot be faster than somebody that has pitted onto a hard.

“The situation became very clear when Russell pitted and he was very fast on a new hard. It was apparent that the hard was working well and the overcut – it works well when you gain in Barcelona or Suzuka in the past, you gain four-five laps of tyre delta and then when you pit, even if you pit behind the car on the soft before, you will pass him, because you have better tyres.

“But here, the tyres almost don’t degrade at all from one lap to the other. We kept seeing purple sectors and purple laps until the final lap. So it’s a low degradation race.”

Alternatively, with such low degradation, McLaren could have pulled the pin early, and stopped Norris first for a more traditional undercut – something that it threatened to do with a radio call to Norris on Lap 19.

SUZUKA, JAPAN - APRIL 06: Second placed Lando Norris of Great Britain and McLaren Race winner Max — Norris and Piastri flanked Verstappen on the podium

“We will review, obviously, the gaps in terms of time to understand whether there was a possibility to go for an undercut with Lando that could actually have been executed on Max,” added Stella.

“We don’t have to forget though that by giving up track position, you also expose the car that you pit to a Safety Car risk, for instance.

“Lando would have lost positions in a Safety Car, should a Safety Car have been deployed.

“In hindsight, you don’t see any Safety Car, you don’t see anything and you think ‘We might have gone for the undercut’, but an undercut attempt comes with some risks. And it was apparent that the degradation was low, so if you lose position with a Safety Car, it’s lost. I don’t think we could have overtaken a Ferrari or a Mercedes.”

Norris talks through his P2 in Japan – and the pit exit fight with Verstappen

A final strategic question faced by the McLaren pit wall was whether to issue team orders for Norris and Piastri to swap positions and allow the Australian an opportunity to hunt down Verstappen, given he appeared to have stronger pace than his team mate for much of the second stint, a notion that Stella disputed.

He explained: “I don’t think it was so clear that Oscar was faster. I think Lando was trying to get in Max’s slipstream even closer, but any time you went below one second, then there was a significant loss in grip. So Lando was doing a little bit of an elastic race, trying to cool down his tyres a bit, going again. I don’t think it is a situation that we should judge at face value in terms of what the pace of the car was.

“Lando was trying to get close to Verstappen with maximum momentum but it was difficult. It was something we knew right from the start, that at this track, you need seven-eight tenths of performance advantage to be able to overtake.”