A final strategic question faced by the McLaren pit wall was whether to issue team orders for Norris and Piastri to swap positions and allow the Australian an opportunity to hunt down Verstappen, given he appeared to have stronger pace than his team mate for much of the second stint, a notion that Stella disputed.
READ MORE: What the teams said – Race day in Japan
He explained: “I don’t think it was so clear that Oscar was faster. I think Lando was trying to get in Max’s slipstream even closer, but any time you went below one second, then there was a significant loss in grip. So Lando was doing a little bit of an elastic race, trying to cool down his tyres a bit, going again. I don’t think it is a situation that we should judge at face value in terms of what the pace of the car was.
“Lando was trying to get close to Verstappen with maximum momentum but it was difficult. It was something we knew right from the start, that at this track, you need seven-eight tenths of performance advantage to be able to overtake.”
