One moment of light for McLaren in the race was a pit stop. Norris was about 1.5 seconds behind Verstappen when they approached. Within the theoretical range of “undercut”, the driver first stopped and used the time gained by his rival to gain position by going ahead before his rival left the pit.
However, McLaren was cancelled due to unfortunate circumstances.
They stopped on lap 18 with Norris. Red Bull ignored them.
Mercedes then stopped George Russell on lap 19. His pace with the new tires threatened to undercut him before Piastri. And that meant that McLaren had to pit Piastri on lap 20 to hold his position. McLaren was faster than Mercedes, but the difficulty of overtaking meant that Piastri didn’t believe he could get Russell back on track.
It gave the game to Red Bull. Red Bull realizes Norris will be coming next time. So they stopped Verstappen. Shutting Norris out wouldn’t have worked – he would have lost more time with his old tires. So he had to pit too.
Still, McLaren made a bar of chance. Norris’ stop was faster than Verstappen, and Briton was in the middle of Red Bull when he left the pit. But Verstappen was entitled to maintain his line, and he did.
The narrow truck meant that Norris’ trajectory had taken him into the grass. He had to retreat and the lead stayed at Verstappen.
“Maybe we could have tried more with strategy,” Norris said. “I’ll explain that.
“Have we been there early? Yes. But you have the risk of a safety car. If you box three laps before and the safety car comes out, you look stupid.”
Stella said it was “unknown” whether the undercut worked. He said they would “review” the data. However, on Sunday evening he was not ready to say this was the race he escaped. As McLaren then spoke about his strategy choices in Canada and Silverstone last year.
The McLaren was the fastest car, but after Burstappen became a pole, Suzuka’s other situations countered them.
Their cars have the advantage of tire wear, which is traditionally higher in Suzuka. Last year, it may have meant that their pace dominance would grow through the stint and create potential for overtaking.
However, the first sector of rap had surfaced, which led to a decline, and they lost one of the theoretical advantages over their rivals.
“For example, you’ll nail the qualifying laps like you did yesterday’s Max,” Stella said.
