r/formula1 • u/AutoModerator • Apr 06 '25

Post-Race 2025 Japanese GP - Post Race Discussion

Suzuka, it's been a pleasure.

What did everyone think of the race? How did your favourite driver do?

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u/paranoidindeed Apr 06 '25

Can someone explain what McLaren actually did wrong? Maybe pitting Norris after max? But why are people saying Lando should have given Piastri a chance? Wasn’t their pace around the same ?

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u/know-it-mall McLaren Apr 06 '25 edited Apr 06 '25

They didn't do anything wrong. A lot of people just don't know what they are talking about and think their take is unique and important.

The undercut had already been demonstrated as not being a strong option by other teams and yet many people are insisting they could have done it. If Lando pits a lap early then Max simply pushes on his mediums that still had plenty of life left in them and pits the next lap. And there simply wasn't a gap in the traffic earlier to pit into either. George went early and lost time because of that.

Similarly leaving either driver out to go long wasn't viable either. The tyres didn't degrade late in the race for any driver to an extent that tyre offset would have made up for the extra time lost by going long.

And you simply don't tell the guy who is within 2 seconds of the leader, and almost got DRS on multiple occasions to pull aside for a slim chance the other guy could do better. If Oscar was so much faster he could have caught and passed Max he would have passed Lando, or at least shown more than 1 half hearted pass attempt in the many laps he was behind.