McLaren may have topped the timesheets in Friday practice for the Japanese Grand Prix, but the wider picture indicated Mercedes still has a clear advantage around Suzuka. However, while McLaren’s single-lap pace perhaps flattered it, its long-run deficit was smaller than it first appeared.All of that confirms McLaren is making progress. At Suzuka today, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella claimed its deficit to Mercedes in terms of exploiting the power unit is now “pretty small”, pointing to the need to improve the chassis thanks to its grip deficit. And around a circuit like Suzuka, relatively harvest-poor like Albert Park but with a very different combination of corners that made the energy-management challenge an even more complicated one, downforce still matters. “Oscar f …
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Author: Edd Straw
