Lando Norris has admitted McLaren need to take more risks in certain scenarios after reviewing how they lost out to Max Verstappen at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Norris followed Verstappen for all 53 laps of last Sunday’s race at Suzuka, including the pit-stop phase where the leaders, unusually, pitted on the same lap.

The McLaren driver says, had he pitted earlier to try and undercut Verstappen, he was “always going to come out in traffic” which could have denied him a chance to take a second win of the season.

“Would I be willing to take that risk of boxing behind more cars and going for the win then? Yes,” explained Norris, who finished ahead of McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri.

“But we still finished second and third. We still got more points in the constructors’, and I still had a good result as a driver for points, but I did lose out to Max and at the minute he’s my main competitor. But there was a lot of reviews.

“We were not happy after last weekend. Second and third is a great result as a team, still. But could it have been better potentially, and could we have potentially taken more risks and have been a bit more attacking as a team? Yes.

“At the end of the day I stand by our approach with that weekend, but [after] a review into these weekends, [we need] to be a bit more attacking at times.”

Norris: I need to win races

Last year, McLaren notably missed out on race wins in Montreal, Silverstone and Sao Paulo partly due to strategy mistakes.

In each of those grands prix, Verstappen was behind Norris but got back ahead of his rival by the chequered flag.

Suzuka therefore was a reminder that McLaren still need to improve when it comes to close, strategical races, particularly against Red Bull and Verstappen.

Norris, who leads Verstappen by just one point ahead of this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix, says he may be “more forceful or demanding” on the radio strategically in certain scenarios in the future.

“I think, at times, I might want to take more risk to go for a win. It’s not always a guarantee,” he added.

“There might be cases where we go for it, I get stuck or Oscar undercuts me, or another driver undercuts me, or overcuts and the price of taking a risk doesn’t come out in my favour and, actually, I lose positions in the end of the day.

“I need to acknowledge that could be the case sometimes. I want to accept second is a not a bad result, but I need to win races and not settle for second.

“Definitely, from my side, I would love to go and kind of go back and redo things with a slightly more aggressive approach, but I do know deep down that it’s a long season, and sometimes points on the board is better than taking unnecessary risks.”

Verstappen expects Red Bull to be less competitive in Bahrain

Verstappen has maximised his season so far on Sundays with second in Australia, fourth in China and a stunning victory in Japan.

The reigning world champion has dominated the Bahrain Grand Prix over the last two years but McLaren now have the car to beat and he thinks the hot temperatures will go against Red Bull.

“The first stint in Australia we got destroyed with the overheating and tyre degradation in general, same in China,” he said.

“I would say, to a certain extent also in Suzuka, but you can’t pass. Lando was closing up to me in the end of that first thing again, and I knew that was coming.

“I was just driving to my own pace. But I think because the track [temperature] then dropped quite a bit on that on the day, that helped a bit.

“Here in Bahrain, it’s going to be hot, we have aggressive tarmac. So on paper, from what we’ve seen, so far this season, that’s not ideal for us, compared to McLaren.

“It’s up to us, of course, to try and find those improvements in the car or tyre behaviour.”

The Bahrain International Circuit has traditionally not played to the strengths of McLaren. In fact, the team have never won the race since it joined the F1 calendar in 2004.

Norris expects “tough competition” from Red Bull and Ferrari this weekend.

“I think our advantage will be lessened compared to previous weekends. Trickier track, slower-speed circuit, which has not been as favourable for us, and is where the car is in a trickier state comparing to what we had potentially last year,” he said.

“I still would just expect a good competition from Ferrari, Mercedes and even the midfield pack will probably be a bit closer to us this weekend, so I expect a difficult weekend. I don’t expect any easy ones.

“Yes, the car is good, and yes, the team are doing an amazing job, but it’s close like you’ve seen the past few weekends.

“Red Bull also have a good car, Max is Max, and Charles and Lewis and the other guys around, I expect tough competition.”

Sky Sports F1’s Bahrain GP Schedule

Friday April 11

• 8.50am: F3 Practice
• 10am: F2 Practice
• 12pm: Bahrain GP Practice One (session starts at 12.30pm)*
• 1.55pm: F3 Qualifying
• 2.40pm: F2 Qualifying
• 3.35pm: Bahrain GP Practice Two (session starts at 4pm)
• 5.15pm: The F1 Show

Saturday April 12

• 11.10am: F3 Sprint Race
• 1.15pm: Bahrain GP Practice Three (session starts at 1.30pm)
• 3.10pm: F2 Sprint
• 4.10pm: Bahrain GP Qualifying build-up
• 5pm: BAHRAIN GP QUALIFYING
• 7pm: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook

Sunday April 13

• 10.50am: F3 Feature Race
• 12.20pm: F2 Feature Race
• 2.30pm: Bahrain GP build-up: Grand Prix Sunday
• 4pm: THE BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX
• 6pm: Bahrain GP reaction: Chequered Flag
• 7pm: Ted’s Notebook

*also live on Sky Sports Main Event

Formula 1 continues its triple-header in Sakhir at the Bahrain Grand Prix this weekend, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – No contract, cancel anytime