McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri successfully started and finished the 2026 F1 Japanese GP; the Aussie finished the race in P2, with the World Champion in P5, leaving team principal Andrea Stella satisfied.
Overall, the 2026 Japanese GP was an improvement from the previous two races for the McLaren F1 team.
Positive day for Stella and McLaren at 2026 Japanese GP
Both McLaren drivers had a mega start at the 2026 F1 Japanese GP, with Oscar Piastri taking the lead from Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli after starting 3rd, while Lando Norris found himself in P3 from 5th on the grid.
While the Brit did fall back behind Russell and Antonelli during that stint, his Australian stablemate maintained his gap out front.
“It’s a very positive day overall for the team. We were in condition to start the race with two cars, which is the first time this year, and we were in condition to complete the race,” said team principal Andrea Stella in a print media session. “I think today we confirmed the progress that we saw yesterday in qualifying, progress that allowed Oscar to lead the race after a very good start. We were surprised ourselves, especially at the end of the first stint, where we not only were able to keep Russell behind, but we were also opening the gap at the end of the first stint,” the Italian continued.
Piastri maintained the lead of the 2026 Japanese GP for nineteen laps, pitting earlier than the Silver Arrows cars behind him. Bearman crashed heavily on lap twenty-two, prompting the deployment of the safety car. It gave Kimi Antonelli a cheap stop and the lead.
Without the safety car, would Piastri, who was making his first GP laps at Suzuka for the 2026 season, have won? The Italian engineer and now team boss explained their thinking behind the earlier stop.
“We thought that we should go first, so that we could retain the leadership, because we wanted to give it a go at winning the race. We will never know whether, without the safety car, it would have been possible or not. I think it would have been possible against Russell, because we saw that Russell was struggling anyhow to overtake even Ferrari,” explained the McLaren TP.
Unclear for Stella if Piastri could’ve won the race thanks to Antonelli’s speed
According to Stella, McLaren and Ferrari had similar pace at the 2026 Japanese GP.
However, Antonelli was faster than anybody else. The young Italian benefitted from the safety car the most, but he absolutely took off after that. Even without it, the McLaren boss is sure he would have been in the fight for P1.
In the end, it does not make a difference for Stella if Piastri could have won the race, focusing on the positives and improved performance.
“And I think today McLaren and Ferrari were on a similar pace. Antonelli, though, he had a faster pace than anybody else. Antonelli, though, he had a faster pace than anybody else. So I think Antonelli at some stage he would have been in the competition for the victory.
“So we will not know whether Oscar could have won the race or not. Ultimately it doesn’t make a difference. I think today we should just take the positives, which I said at the start, and I think there’s a lot of positives for Oscar himself.
“He has been driving very well at the start of the season. It’s a shame that he has not been in condition to prove it and demonstrate it. Today he had the chance and he did it,” added the former Ferrari race engineer.
Better understanding of the power unit for Stella’s team at 2026 Japanese GP
After qualifying, Andrea Stella said that he expected this race to be similar to the previous ones. Ultimately, however, it was not.
One reason for that was a poor start from both Mercedes drivers again.
“Without the variability introduced by the start of the grid, we would have seen a slightly more predictable race. I think if the Mercedes are on the lead, they just disappear. We have seen with the lead of Kimi [Antonelli] after the safety car,” said Stella.
Ahead of the 2026 Japanese GP, Stella and the team studied how the power unit works. It allowed them to be closer to Ferrari and Mercedes. According to the Italian, McLaren and the Italian team were on the same level during the race, although the Scuderia has an advantage in the corners. However, they benefit from the competitive power unit from Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains (HPP).
“In general I think what has happened here compared to other races, well, first of all McLaren wasn’t in the race, we can take advantage of the better exploitation of the power unit which allowed us to be closer in qualifying and I think allowed us to be closer to Ferrari and Mercedes in the race as well. I think here with Ferrari we were on par. When we look at the overlays in the race, you can see that Ferrari still retains some advantage in the corners.
“Definitely their [Ferrari’s] car is able to generate more grip than our car. I think we benefit from a power unit that overall is more competitive. HPP from this point of view have done a really good job in terms of the overall competitiveness of the power unit,” Stella states.
No graining helped McLaren to be competitive
Compared to Melbourne and China, there was less to no graining on the tyres. That was one reason for McLaren to stay competitive in the 2026 Japanese GP, claims Andrea Stella. Alongside that, a resurfaced tarmac at Suzuka has also been key to the strong weekend.
“One more factor is that here in Suzuka there was no graining. And in the previous races, like Australia and the sprint in China, I think we have seen that when there is a front graining, we seem to be slightly more susceptible to this phenomenon on the tyres than Ferrari and Mercedes. This is a combination of factors that allowed us to stay in the race today,” he added. “Here with this tarmac, the grip from the tarmac is very high. I think it helps if you don’t have great performance from the chassis. Like I said before, I think Mercedes and Ferrari have a better performance.”
While the team principal is happy with the team’s improvements, there is still more work to do. There is one key goal for now: improving the perfomance of McLaren’s chassis.
“Overall, good news, but it doesn’t change our objective. We have to improve the performance of our chassis.”
