“I don’t even want to think what it would have happened with the other car”. You can never rule Verstappen out and at Suzuka Max scored his 64th win in career, the 4th in a row on the tricky Suzuka track that doesn’t forgive the minimum mistake.  The “other car” is the McLaren that arrived in Japan as the reference and the absolute favorite for the victory.  On the contrary, when the car is not there, the four time world champion is able to make the difference.

His team mates continue to change. After two races Liam Lawson was moved to the Racing Bulls after only 2 races and Yuki Tsunoda finished 12th in his home gp.

Only King Max, shone on a tricky track that doesn’t forgive the minimum mistake. With this success, the first this season, his fight for the 5th world title has started.

The two McLaren, that dominated in Australia and China, had to settled for the podium and now Max is only one point behind Lando Norris.

The title fight is still very open, but what we saw in Suzuka reignited the debate over the best strategy for managing McLaren’s drivers. With Norris and Oscar Piastri both potential team leaders, there is no clear decision on who to prioritize at the moment, with the obvious risk of wasting energy and valuable points.

At Suzuka, Piastri, who was trailing Norris, appeared significantly faster than his teammate. However, the team decided not to swap their positions in an attempt to chase down Verstappen, who was not far ahead. Of course, there’s no proof that Piastri, if overtaking Norris, would have eventually caught and passed Verstappen, however, against such a determined competitor, a clear and strategic vision is needed, without fearing to hurt the feelings of either driver.

McLaren has the strongest car but is facing a rival that doesn’t make any discounts.   Currently, the Papaya team allows both drivers to race freely, with the strict rule being not to endanger the other’s car or the team’s interests.

Team principal Andrea Stella believes this approach provides an advantage that outweighs potential drawbacks: the drivers benefit from each other’s competitiveness. In China, Piastri was the technical reference point, while Norris suffered significant understeering on his car, but the team proceeded as usual.

“A double podium finish is a positive result for the team”, Stella said,  “we felt the victory was possible but  we missed out on Pole Position by a few milliseconds, and the Qualifying order was the dominant factor for the final outcome of the Grand Prix. We will review to see if there were some variables we could have played with, but degradation was low and a one-stop race didn’t give us many strategic options”. Regarding the drivers, he added, talking to the BBC:  “Having two drivers of such a high level, means that the information one can gather from the other is valuable. And if you do a good job of combining both drivers’ strengths, it enhances performance.”

Photo: Courtesy of McLaren