Stella explained why team tactics were not used.

      During the second leg of the Japanese Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri, during a radio exchange with Tom Stallard, his racing engineer, clearly hinted that he could go faster than his teammate and made it clear that he was ready to try to catch up with Max Verstappen, who was leading. That is, if Lando Norris lets him go ahead.

      After the finish, Andrea Stella explained why McLaren had ignored this idea.  

      "I don't think it was that obvious that Oscar was faster," Speedcafe quoted the head of the British team as saying. – Lando tried to get even closer to Max in order to take advantage of the slipstream behind his car, but every time the interval became less than a second, there was a significant loss of grip.

      Lando tried to adapt to it somehow, cooled the tires a little, and then made the next attempt. And I don't think we should take this situation as indicative in terms of the pace of the car. Lando did his best to get close to Verstappen, but it was difficult."

      The updated asphalt surface in the first sector of the lap made it possible to implement the tactics of a single pit stop without much difficulty. In the first two stages of the season, McLaren had some advantage, including because the MCL39 car allows you to use the rubber resource more efficiently, but on the Japanese track it was practically devalued.

      Because of this, McLaren strategists had almost no freedom of tactical maneuver, and the team could not dictate its terms to rivals, but was forced to react to their actions. Since the tactics of the earlier pit stop, the so-called "clipping", proved ineffective in Suzuka, and it was necessary to overtake only on the track.

      "But we knew from the very beginning that on this track, to overtake, you need a seven– to eight-tenths advantage in pace," continued Stella. – This advantage can usually be achieved if the rubber is degraded. However, this has changed at Suzuka due to the new asphalt: if earlier this track was characterized by a high level of degradation, now it has become very low."

      Piastri was the first McLaren driver to enter the pits, on lap 20, when the team reacted to George Russell's pit stop, which had been completed a lap earlier in Mercedes. Then Norris turned into the pit lane.

      "Of course, we will analyze all the excerpts in order to understand whether there was an opportunity to apply trimming in the case of Lando, due to which we could try to get ahead of Max," explained Stella. – But we must not forget that in such cases, we, losing our position, may find ourselves in an unfavorable position if a safety car enters the highway.

      If that had happened, Lando would have lost several positions. When you don't see any circumstances that could cause the appearance of a safety car, the thought arises: "Maybe we should try to apply pruning?" But such tactics come with some risks.

      With an obviously low level of degradation, if you lose a position in the event of a safety car leaving, you are unlikely to be able to regain it. I don't think we could have overtaken the Ferrari or Mercedes cars in Suzuka.

      And if you stay on the track longer, then after 20 laps on worn-out Medium tires, you won't be able to drive faster than your rivals who have already switched to fresh hard tires. This became quite clear when Russell drove the new Hard kit very fast after the pit stop. It was obvious that the hard rubber was working well.

      In the past, in Barcelona or Suzuka, the tactics of a later pit stop were quite effective, but now there is almost no degradation of rubber on the Japanese track, and in such cases the race results are determined only by qualifying."

      Norris and Piastri showed their 2nd and 3rd results on Saturday, retained their positions after the start and eventually climbed to the podium in the same order. And Max Verstappen celebrated his fourth consecutive victory in the Japanese Grand Prix.