(Motorsport-Total.com) – The Japanese Grand Prix was McLaren’s best race of the season so far. Oscar Piastri took the lead after the start, led the race until his pit stop, and finally finished in second place behind Kimi Antonelli in the Mercedes.
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Although he was able to leave both Ferrari drivers and George Russell in the second Mercedes behind him, Andrea Stella emphasizes that McLaren remains only the third force in Formula 1. “I think that Ferrari and Mercedes have better performance,” says the team principal.
First of all, Stella makes it clear that they are still without a chance against the Mercedes works team in terms of pure pace. “I believe that once the Mercedes are in the lead, they are simply no longer catchable,” he emphasizes.
“We saw that with Kimi when he was in the lead after the safety car,” says Stella. The Italian was able to pull away from Piastri immediately after the safety car phase and eventually won the race with a 13.7-second lead.
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Although Piastri was able to keep Russell in the other Mercedes behind him for a long time at the start of the race, this was more due to the fact that overtaking in Suzuka is traditionally difficult. In clean air, the W17 was once again by far the fastest car on Sunday.
Interestingly, Stella sees McLaren not only behind the works team but also still behind Ferrari. Although they were “on par” with the Scuderia in Suzuka, the team principal emphasizes. However, Stella believes his former team still has the better car.
“I believe we benefit from a powertrain that is more competitive overall. HPP has done a really good job in this regard concerning the general competitiveness of the powertrain,” Stella explains.
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“We can benefit from better use of the power unit, which brought us closer in qualifying. I believe that also allowed us to get closer to Ferrari and Mercedes in the race,” the team principal reports. But away from the engine, things look less promising.
… but loses too much time in the corners
“If you look at the overlays of the race, it’s noticeable that Ferrari still has a certain advantage in the corners. Their car can definitely generate more grip than ours,” Stella observed. McLaren therefore looked better in Japan than they actually are.
The Italian explains that the asphalt in Suzuka generally offers a lot of grip. “I think that’s an advantage when the chassis doesn’t perform particularly strongly,” says Stella, who mentions another important factor. Because there was also no graining over the weekend.
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That was different in Australia and China. “We seem to be a bit more susceptible to this phenomenon with the tires than Ferrari and Mercedes,” Stella observed. Therefore, while they are satisfied with the result in Suzuka, they must also be realistic.
“Nothing changes regarding our goal. We must improve the performance of the chassis,” Stella emphasizes. Otherwise, the good result in Suzuka could have been merely an outlier.
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