McLaren CEO Zak Brown has explained the reason why the team ordered its cars to swap positions midway through the Japanese Grand Prix, after an early pit stop for Oscar Piastri. The Australian elected to make his first stop during an early Virtual Safety Car, which was put out in the aftermath of a collision between Sergio Perez and Kevin Magnussen. He was effectively ahead of Lando Norris by the time he made his stop, after Norris lost time behind a slow Perez during the VSC. Norris could be heard over team radio saying that he had more pace, with him eventually finishing ahead of Piastri by over 17 seconds. "They were on different cycles on the tyres and at the same time Lando got caught out by Perez. We weren't sure if he had a problem and couldn't get by him [Perez] or not," Brown told Sky Sports F1. "It was a pretty straightforward race, it's always nerve-racking because it's not over until the chequered flag comes out."
Brown 'confident' for upcoming races
McLaren now moves to 49 points of Aston Martin in the Constructors' Championship for fourth place after its double podium. Brown expects McLaren to continue its current form into the next couple of races which feature high-speed corners. "As confident as I can that we're going to be pretty strong everywhere, but there are some tracks that will favour your car more than others," he said when asked for how the team would fare. "We're good at high speed [tracks] which Qatar is, so I think we'll be strong there and hopefully won't be weak anywhere."
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