The Red Bull Formula 1 team principal, Christian Horner, believes Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri Having equal status made it more challenging for them. McLaren to fight Max Verstappen in Suzuka.

After being outperformed by Verstappen’s impressive pole position on Saturday, Norris and Piastri found themselves trying to catch up to the current world champion during the Grand Prix aboard their inherently faster McLaren. The single-stopper strategy at Suzuka provided little room for passing maneuvers throughout the race.

During his second stint, Piastri requested the team switch positions to give him an opportunity to race against Verstappen, believing he possessed additional speed.

However, that phone call never materialized, as team principal Andrea Stella remained unconvinced that Piastri outperformed Norris when driving behind the dirtier parts of the Red Bull car.

Stella remarked, “I’m not convinced Oscar was clearly faster. Lando attempted to stay even nearer within Max’s wake, yet whenever anyone fell under a one-second gap, they experienced considerable loss of traction.”

To outpace others at this circuit, you require a performance edge of about seven or eight-tenths.

Max Verstappen from Red Bull Racing

Image courtesy of: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

Although Horner covets McLaren's status of fielding two competitive vehicles, something Red Bull has not achieved as they take their chances with Yuki Tsunoda As Verstappen’s most recent teammate, he sensed that the team's strategy of treating drivers equally had drawbacks, making it more challenging for the squad to challenge the Dutch racer.

Piastri was placed third initially due to the pressure from behind, which forced Norris to enter the pit lane on the same lap as Verstappen, thereby eliminating any potential strategic choices.

"Perhaps their issue stems from having two drivers who are competing against each other for the drivers' championship," Horner suggested.

The challenge they face is allowing these races to happen as part of their agreement. This compromise is an inevitable result of that decision.

When asked whether Norris could have surpassed Verstappen by stopping one lap sooner, he responded: "The undercut seemed quite effective. Certainly, there’s plenty of ‘what ifs’ going back and forth along the pit lane."

I believe most of the strenuous effort took place on Saturday. Probably around 90 percent of the vehicles completed the race in their initial positions. Today turned out to be an all-out sprint competition. The wear and tear was minimal.

We understand that the McLarens are incredibly swift. It required Max to be absolutely precise with two extremely quick McLarens closely following him.

For 53 laps, he didn’t make a single error and maintained enough speed to stay ahead of others, keeping them out of his DRS zone. I believe this might be one of Max’s finest performances over the weekend.

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