The Japanese Grand Prix ended up being a battle between the team strategists as well as the drivers on track.
Max Verstappen’s latest victory was effortless and he may as well not have been racing given his lack of on-screen time.
Covering the Grand Prix for The Race, journalist Scott Mitchell-Malm (7/4 7:16am) was left very unimpressed by one team’s calls at Suzuka.
The red flag caused by Daniel Ricciardo and Alex Albon’s crash provided a conundrum for all ten teams.
The question everyone had to deal with was whether to stick with the tyres they started on or make a change.
Mercedes gambled and put on new hard tyres but it left them slower than their rivals and attempting a one-stop strategy that was never going to work.
On the other hand, Charles Leclerc kept his medium tyres alive much longer than expected and benefitted as a result.
However, Mitchell-Malm was left perplexed by a strategy error McLaren made that ruined Lando Norris’s race in Japan.
After starting third following a brilliant performance in qualifying, he was left hung out to dry during his final stints.
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McLaren strategy error costs Lando Norris in Japan
After Ferrari’s victory in Australia, it appeared that they were the closest rivals to Red Bull heading to Suzuka.
However, Lando Norris showed his one-lap pace on Saturday and was only a couple of tenths behind Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.
He held off Carlos Sainz during both race starts on Sunday but it was clear that Ferrari had more race pace.
Norris was pitted onto hard tyres that briefly saw him undercut Sergio Perez but the Red Bull didn’t take too long to get past him again.
Then McLaren made a strategy call that proved to be an error and gave Norris no chance of challenging for a podium.
Instead, was left racing on his own for the final laps much to his disappointment.
Lando Norris unable to repeat Australian GP podium
Norris was told by the McLaren team to pit for his final set of tyres much earlier than many would have expected.
Over the radio, they explained that they were covering off George Russell in his Mercedes, but his fellow Brit never looked like a threat.
Speaking about the decision, Mitchell-Malm said: “I do not understand that from McLaren at all. Boxing behind Leclerc who looks like he has a faster car.
“And it hasn’t covered off the Russell undercut anyway. A huge error.”
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McLaren the third-fastest team in Japan
While it appears as though McLaren made a strategy error with Norris’s race in Japan, the speed of the two Ferraris would have been difficult to deal with no matter what they did.
Carlos Sainz put in a top performance again to record another podium finish and Leclerc recovered brilliantly to fourth place.
Norris’s McLaren was definitely quicker than the Mercedes but the decision to try and cover off Russell meant that it compromised his ability to score even more points.
It’s not the first time that Norris has been left disappointed by a call made by his team this season.
He thought he should have finished second in Australia ahead of Leclerc had the team gambled on a more aggressive strategy.
Instead, they made sure that he and Oscar Piastri came home in third and fourth and allowed the Brit to pass his younger teammate much to the disappointment of the home crowd.
McLaren will want to assess the decisions they made closely after the race and may wonder if they left another podium finish behind in Japan.
A long-awaited return to China at the next Grand Prix will give them another opportunity to try and prove they’re capable of challenging at the very front of the grid.
The post ‘Do not understand’: 24-year-old’s team made a ‘huge error’ with his strategy during Japanese GP – journalist appeared first on F1 Oversteer.