The fourth round of this 2024 season has just ended on the Suzuka circuit. For McLaren, it could have been a race that for them could have been full of satisfaction, but it was only full of disappointments and uncertainties.
Suzuka is one of the most fascinating circuits ever, characterized by twists, including red flags, clashes and yellow flags. It’s one of those very significant circuits that gives you a first general picture of the teams. In this race, McLaren showed that it still has many difficulties.
This fourth race of the 2024 season confirmed which teams are currently competing. Even though Ferrari found themselves in great difficulty on Saturday, they managed to beat McLaren on Sunday. Confirming the fact that McLaren is currently the third force in the championship, but there are still many flaws to fix.
Qualifying
During qualifying Lando Norris managed to put up a fight by producing good laps, especially in Q3. The Brit managed to gain P3 ahead of the race (1.28.489). As he declared, he was happy with the car, very competitive and confident of being able to take the podium. However, the same was not the case for Oscar Piastri. Piastri found it very difficult to find the pace and was unable to achieve anything better than a P6 (1.28.760).
The race of the two McLarens and the missed podium
The main objective for McLaren was to try to maximize what they had tried to achieve during qualifying. But what we must remember is that to guarantee a good performance in the race, it is important to have clear ideas about strategies. Because this is the key point to be able to bring home points. However, when this is missing, the race is over.
Norris was very optimistic about being able to fight for victory, after taking third place in qualifying. But the race demonstrated a large gap between McLaren and the two Red Bulls and great difficulty in fighting against the Ferraris. Lando Norris remained behind Charles Leclerc for most of the race, only to be overtaken by Carlos Sainz on lap 44.
But what perhaps further ruined the race, beyond tyre degradation and the lack of pace, was the wrong choice of strategy. Norris’ return to the pits halfway through the race, just as he was behind Leclerc, was perhaps what further damaged his race, causing him to lose positions. To date, 4 races have been held with 3 wrong strategies. An undercut in this race appeared to be the wrong choice for McLaren, a senseless strategy.
The difference in experience was also seen in both teammates. Norris was one of the drivers who managed tyre degradation well. This is also due to his experience on important tracks like these. Meanwhile, Piastri struggled a lot with the tyres and this also led to a difficulty in trying to fight cleanly in the race.
The McLaren team have certainly improved a lot compared to last year. But how much does this matter when other teams have done so much more? When you aren’t clear on what strategies to use, many important opportunities end up being thrown away. This is precisely what happened in Suzuka. The papaya team still has a lot to work on. The car is difficult to drive as shown by the constant understeer that drivers complain about. There is also a concern about how the car behaves in low-speed corners, with tyre degradation and with DRS.
A McLaren in difficulty and fighting
McLaren was never realistically able to challenge Ferrari. Currently, what they have to worry about is the fight against Mercedes and Aston Martin. And what we can hope is that the updates they will bring can be useful in trying to at least get closer in a possible fight against Ferrari. Because it is very frustrating to see a driver set an extraordinary lap in qualifying, but have the race ruined due to car problems and wrong strategies.
