McLaren dominated free practice with a clear margin over their rivals, but then couldn’t convert that performance, as Max Verstappen of Red Bull ended up on top after qualifying for the Japanese GP. Curiously, the Dutchman was not the fastest in any of the three sectors of the Suzuka track—Lando Norris led Sector 1, and Oscar Piastri was quickest in Sectors 2 and 3. This alone suggests that the papaya cars didn’t extract the full potential of the Woking machine designed by Rob Marshall and Peter Prodromou.
Andrea Stella’s drivers made small mistakes in Q3: when you’re second by 12 thousandths with Norris and third by 42 thousandths with Oscar Piastri, it’s clear there’s room for regret, despite the phenomenal performance pulled off by the Dutch ace with his talent.
Within the team, there’s strong belief that McLaren’s advantage should come through in the race tomorrow, regardless of track conditions. When you’re that close to pole despite an imperfect lap, there’s every reason to believe in continuing the winning streak from the first two GPs.
“The fact is, we’re in the fight with two cars against Max or George,” explained Stella, “and if there’s some rotation in who we’re up against, what matters is that we’re always in the battle—even if the rivals change. We need to capitalize on our performance and turn it into points for the Constructors’ Championship. And there’s another point to highlight: the synergy between our drivers, who push each other and help raise the overall performance on track.”
The Umbrian team principal doesn’t say it outright, but he doesn’t seem too worried about having Max Verstappen in front of the two MCL39s. The story over the 53 laps of the Suzuka GP could end very differently from qualifying—especially with rain expected tomorrow morning or the wind possibly shifting.
The MCL39’s adaptability to different circuits is now an established fact, as is the difficulty in pushing it to its limit.
“I saw that Max was competitive and I’m not at all surprised by his pole position. I’m happy with my lap because I made progress without taking too many risks. If I’d pushed harder, I might’ve made a mistake and ended up third. Oscar and I were very fast, but every time we tried to go beyond, we couldn’t match the Red Bull’s performance today.”
In short, targeting a single flying lap is one thing—race pace is another. In the race, you can perform without constantly being on the edge, knowing that the car’s potential is very high and still has plenty of room to grow.
“To be honest,” Andrea Stella admitted, “after seeing Oscar’s first sector, we thought the lap was compromised, but then he put together purple sectors in the next two. It suggests that both drivers, when pushing the car to the limit, have slightly different approaches in what they expect from the car and its feedback. So we know that on both sides of the garage we still have opportunities to work on. We’re counting on exploiting the race pace the car has shown us—both in dry and wet conditions. We’ll need to make the GP a McLaren affair…”
A polite and refined way of telling rivals they won’t have many opportunities tomorrow, no matter how things turn out.
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