Mauri HarperNorris vied for the podium, only to see Ferrari’s strategy and pace secure the lead.
Lando Norris was in contention for a podium at Suzuka throughout the race, yet Ferrari managed to leverage a superior strategy and undoubtedly better race pace to position both of its SF-24s ahead of the British driver.
Thus, the McLaren F1 driver finishes 5th at the Japanese Grand Prix.
“It was a tough race. Compared to Ferrari, it’s just not enough. I believe everything fell into the expected order among Red Bull, Ferrari, and us as the race progressed.”
“It’s disappointing. Starting third and falling back doesn’t feel good. It’s like leading a losing battle against these guys because they can simply do much more. They can drive longer, extend stints, and gain a larger advantage. It’s hard to compete.”
“We took our chances and did what we could. We secured the maximum points outside the top two teams, which is all we were able to achieve.”
Did he not expect to finish at least ahead of Charles Leclerc?
“Charles did a good job of going that far on a single set of tires. I was surprised we stopped as early as we did, but it was in response to what Ferrari did.”
“However, we covered George Russell’s strategy, which I think was unnecessary. That’s something we’ll discuss later in the debriefing. Maybe a discussion, if we could have done a better job to finish 4th, but it’s always tough to make those decisions at the time.”
“Ferrari is clearly ahead. They’ve been ahead all year. They are still ahead. We haven’t changed anything all year, so there’s no reason for us to be in front.”
Piastri: We need to find more pace in the car
Oscar Piastri finished 8th after yielding to Russell’s attacks in the final moments of the race.
“It’s not really the positions I’d want to be fighting for, of course. I just struggled a bit with the tires. I think we just really didn’t have the pace of the cars around us, so we just need to dig into why.”
“I could see by the way he was using energy, I could see he was trying to stay in my DRS, but George couldn’t overtake and attack me.”
“I knew exactly what he was doing but I just made a small mistake in the last chicane, locked up the brakes a bit, and that was it.”
“I think today showed we still have work to do. We are clearly not at Ferrari’s level yet, so we just need to find a bit more.”
“I also think for me, it wasn’t the best of weekends, so there’s also internal looking, but, of course, we need to find a bit more pace in the car.”
Norris: “A Tough Race Against Ferrari”. Norris: “A Tough Race Against Ferrari”
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