The driver’s equal policy compromised the Japanese general practitioner of McLaren

The boss of the Red Bull Formula 1 team, Christian Horner, thinks that Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri having an equal status made more difficult for McLaren to fight Max Verstappen in Suzuka.

Having been overwhelmed by the superb Verstappen post tour on Saturday, Norris and Piastri spent the Grand Prix pursuing the title champion in an intrinsically faster McLaren, with a one -stop shop from Suzuka.

In the second passage, Piastri asked the team to exchange positions and give him a chance to fight Verstappen, the Australian feeling that he had an additional pace in hand.

But this call never came, with the boss of the Andrea Stella team not convinced that Piastri was actually faster than Norris in the dirty air of the Red Bull.

“I don’t think it’s so clear that Oscar was faster,” said Stella. “Lando was trying to bring Max even more closer to Max, but each time you are below a second, there was a significant loss of grip.

“On this track, you need seven and eight tenths of performance advantages in order to be able to exceed.”

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo of: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

While Horner envisages McLaren’s position to have two cars sheltered, that Red Bull has not yet kept his chance with Yuki Tsunoda as the latest teammate, he felt that his equal driving approach had also come with compromises that made the team to attack the dutchman.

He first opposed the third Piastri due to the pressure from behind, leaving Norris to come on the same turn as Verstappen to cancel any strategic option.

“I guess the problem they have is that they have two pilots who are fighting for the pilot championship,” offered Horner.

“The difficulty they have is that they have made a bet where they will let them run. It is therefore the compromise that inevitably comes with it.”

When he was asked if Norris could have beat Verstappen by opposing a round earlier, he replied: “The counter-deputo was reasonably powerful. There could have been “should have, should have,” I am sure, from top to bottom of the pitlane.

“I think that the majority of hard work was done on Saturday. I guess 90% of the cars finished in the order in which they started. It was a flat sprint race today. There was a very low degradation.

“We know that the McLarens are very, very fast. And Max had to be perfect with two very fast McLarens just behind him.

“For 53 laps, he did not make a single error and had the rhythm of covering them, to keep them out of his DRS. I think it is one of the best weekends in Max.”

Additional report by Erwin Jaeggi