Jacques Villeneuve critical of "strange" McLaren response at F1 Japanese GP
Were McLaren too happy to finish second and third in Japan?
1997 F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve described McLaren’s lack of disappointment after the Japanese Grand prix as “strange” despite losing out on the race win.
While McLaren extended their lead in the F1 constructors’ championship, they were beaten to the victory by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were able to stick with Verstappen, but given the lack of overtaking opportunities at Suzuka, couldn’t truly challenge him.
It did seem that McLaren had a performance advantage over Red Bull - but couldn’t capitalise on it.
Villeneuve was surprised by McLaren’s reaction to missing out on the win in Japan, when they should have taken a 1-2 finish.
“That’s not what we were seeing on TV. If the undercut worked, then Piastri would have overtaken Norris because he pitted a lap earlier, but that wasn’t the case,” Villeneuve said when assessing McLaren’s strategy choices.
“So there was some damage control, there. They didn’t seem to be overly disappointed which is strange. They should have been first and second but were beaten, not because they were slow, but because a team and a driver were better.
“That should hurt. They should think ‘we did something wrong this weekend, we should have had a better shot’.
“If you pit on the same lap, of course you want to [overtake] unless there is a big issue in the pit stop. At worst, you pit behind. Or behind your teammate then exchange positions. But at least you get a chance."
McLaren always too “conservative” with strategy
McLaren threw away a number of wins last year due to poor strategy choices.
Former W Series driver Naomi Schiff feels that McLaren were potentially too conservative again in Japan, rather than “taking gambles or risk”.
“Some of the excuse was turbulent air. But Oscar would have been in the turbulent air,” she said. “Then he was saying that Lando was saving tyres.
“It feels like they always want to run on the conservative side, rather than taking gambles or risk.
“It feels like they want to get safe points on the board, and that they are thinking about the long game.”
McLaren are 36 points ahead of Mercedes in the F1 constructors' standings.
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