Lando Norris questions strategy as McLaren explain decisions

Lando Norris has questioned McLaren’s strategy after being beaten to victory at the F1 Japanese Grand Prix.

Norris spent Sunday’s 53-lap race stuck close behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who resisted both the McLarens to convert his brilliant pole position into a first victory of the 2025 season.

Oscar Piastri was the first of the leaders to stop before Verstappen and Norris pitted on the same lap. Norris exited the pit lane alongside Verstappen but ran out of road and had to take to the grass, costing him crucial seconds.

After the race, Norris suggested an undercut strategy may have given him a better chance of getting ahead of Verstappen.

"I could see Max quite clearly for the whole race, but just couldn't make any inroads, so I think him in clean air was enough to stay in that position and he didn't make any mistakes. He drove a good race," Norris.

"The race was won yesterday in hindsight, and I guess we always kind of know the better position you start, the more chance you have of winning.

"But I think our pace was probably slightly better, but not enough to get through the dirty air, kind of get into the DRS, and then passing is a whole other story because it's pretty much impossible to pass here.

"We tried some things. Maybe we could have tried a bit more with strategy. Overcut or undercut, we just boxed on the same lap for some reason. So some things we'll discuss, but good points for us as a team. Decent points for me. Of course, would have liked a little bit more, but have to take second sometimes.”

Norris, who has seen his championship lead over Verstappen shrink to a single point, added: "I probably should have tried to undercut, I think.

"The thing is there's always the Safety Car risk and so forth. I think I could have gone longer because I don't think I would have lost position, so that wasn't off the cards.

"I think we probably should have just tried to run the card and then tried something different. But it just wasn't today. So yeah, things we'll talk about.

"Honestly, I think the undercut is not easy here because the Hard is not mega in the first sector. So whether that even would have worked, I'm unsure. And Max still always had a little buffer to me. So even if I did have a good out lap, I don't think it was enough to probably get past anyway.”

McLaren defend strategy decisions

McLaren denied suggestions their strategy cost Norris the chance to beat Verstappen to victory at Suzuka.

Asked why Norris wasn’t given the opportunity to undercut Verstappen, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said: "We could [have] but I think pitting Lando would have meant that we could not pit Oscar, and this would have been a problem for Oscar.

"Oscar would have waited, which I think would have been a problem with the cars, especially Russell, that pitted and we needed to cover.”

Stella told Sky Sports F1: ”We saw that staying out would not have been faster than pitting.

"We saw that from [Mercedes'] George Russell, who was fast on the hard tyres after pitting.

"It takes about eight tenths of a second to attack the car ahead. As soon as you get within one second you have dirty air and performance drops. Today I think it was not possible to overtake."