Stella 'did not think it was clear' to let Piastri past Norris despite his request

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella believes it was not "clear" that Oscar Piastri "was faster" than teammate Lando Norris at the Japanese Grand Prix.

The Australian came over the team radio during the concluding laps to see if he could be let through to try and catch up to race leader Max Verstappen, a request that was not met by anyone on the McLaren pit wall.

Sunday's race at Suzuka did not see many overtakes throughout its 53 laps, and although Piastri may have shown a bit more speed than Norris, he could not find any way to get past his British teammate before the chequered flag fell and see Verstappen take his first race win of the season.

Stella explains McLaren's decision-making

"I don't think it's so clear that Oscar was faster," explained Stella when asked if a swap of position between the two teammates could have given Piastri a chance of victory.

"I think Lando was trying to get in Max's slipstream even closer, but anytime you went below one second, then there was a significant loss of grip, so then Lando was doing a little bit of an elastic today, trying to cool down his tyres a bit, and then going fast again. So 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," continued the Italian.

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The McLaren team boss continued on, stating that they already suspected that it would be difficult to overtake Verstappen before the Grand Prix got underway: "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 this track, you need seven, eight-tenths of performance advantage in order to be able to overtake.

Normally, this lap time difference may be generated because there is degradation in the tyres. But with the new tarmac, Suzuka has changed the feature of being a high degradation circuit is now being a very low degradation circuit. It was a very easy one-stop with not many strategic options," concluded Stella.

This article was written in collaboration with Cas van de Kleut