The Papaya return
The Japanese Grand Prix has finally given a positive result to the McLarenin obvious difficulty after the first two races of the season in Australia and especially in China, where both drivers of the Woking team had not even taken part in the race. The greatest satisfaction at Suzuka came from the performance of Oscar Piastriwho could have even fought for the victory if it hadn’t been for the introduction of the Safety Car at an unfavorable moment, but the #81 Australian still crossed the finish line in second position. Good performance also from his teammate and reigning world champion Lando Norris, 5th after a good fight at the end with Lewis Hamilton, the last act of a race that had not developed positively for the Briton following an attempted undercut.
The performance of the pilots
A double result that allows the Team Principal Andrea Stella to comment with greater satisfaction and pride on the latest performance of both its drivers: “It was a good weekend which allows us to leave Suzuka encouraged – declared the Umbrian manager – the speed shown in qualifying was confirmed in the race, and we were really able to fight with Ferrari and, at times, with Mercedes. Oscar had a superb race after an excellent start with a high pace, fully deserving the podium. Despite missing the first two Grands Prix, he is showing the best version of himself since he started racing in Formula 1: Calm, resilient and a source of inspiration for the whole team. Lando brought home important points despite the heavily interrupted free practice sessions, which allowed him to barely turn two consecutive laps before the race. Our race execution, starts, strategy and the way we exploited the power unit were solid.”
What is there to improve?
The weekend therefore satisfied Stella and the McLaren men, but in Woking there is still one aspect on which the British manufacturer is still working to improve its performance while awaiting the return to the track in Miami in the first weekend of May: “Although this result encourages us, our goal remains clear: we need to improve the fundamental performance of our chassis. The characteristics of this circuit and the excellent performance of our power unit worked in our favor, but we know that our rivals still have an advantage in terms of cornering grip. We know we need a few tenths of a second more from the chassis to be able to consistently fight for the win. It is now our responsibility to provide both Oscar and Lando with a car capable of consistently competing for victories, and we are focusing on introducing the necessary updates in the coming races to achieve this.”
