Latest Episode | Cut To The Race Podcast
Lando Norris has criticised mistakes made by McLaren after mistakes at Silverstone relegated the British driver to third at the chequered flag.
Starting from the second row for the British Grand Prix, Norris lost third place to Max Verstappen on the opening lap. He struck back on lap 15, powering past the Red Bull on the Hanger Straight with the assistance of DRS.
When rain deluged Silverstone, and the track became slippery. His MCL38 excelled, finding grip where the leading Mercedes cars of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton could not. After Russell and Hamilton ran wide at the first corner, Norris passed Russell with ease. He then capitalised to take the lead from Hamilton on the main straight.
When the time came to pit for intermediate tyres, Norris dived for the pits and kept his lead. As the rain eased, the crossover for dry tyres was fast approaching. Hamilton and Verstappen dived for the pits on lap 39, with McLaren bringing in Norris one lap later.
Overshooting his garage, the British driver lost precious seconds while his mechanics shifted forward. Opting for soft tyres rather than mediums, Norris rejoined behind Hamilton. He later lost second place to Verstappen and finished third.
Mistakes cost Norris dearly
Speaking in the media pen after the race to Sky Sports, Norris rued the decision to pit one lap later than his rivals: “Many…just the two at the end. Just what tyre to box onto and a lap too late. I think the lap too late is completely on me. That’s just driver feel and driver knowledge of when to box, and Lewis did a better job than me on that side.
“We boxed onto the soft and that’s a team call, that’s between the team, it’s between me. So many good parts but again, just a couple which let us down and threw away the win, so pretty disappointed.”
When asked why the team chose to use the soft tyres for the final part of the race, Norris criticised the MCL38’s performance on soft tyres:
“Lewis was on it. So he won the race. It’s not the wrong call but we’re terrible on soft tyres as a team…just because of the car balance and how it works. We’ve always been bad on that kind of tyre, Mercedes have always been very good.
So I almost had no chance of ever beating them. I expected to come out ahead of the Mercedes. I didn’t. I Even if I came out ahead, I wouldn’t have won the race because we were too slow.”
Norris was equally harsh on himself, rueing a second potential lost win a week after his high profile clash with Max Verstappen in Austria. He believed he should “be winning now” and “making better decisions”:
“I’m fed up of just saying I should have done better and I should have done this and I could have done that or whatever so I don’t care if it takes time, I don’t want it to take time. I should be doing it now. We should be winning now. I should be making better decisions than what I’m making. I’m just disappointed, it’s a win. It’s a win in Formula One and I’m not going settle for something less when you should have achieved it.”
“Should we have won a race today? Yes. Did we? No. So I’m not going to be happy with another third place. Cost more points to Max, so I’m not going to be happy with that. Plenty of good things, these are positives, yes, but I’m only going to be satisfied with the end result and I’m not. So I’m not going to be happy at the end of the day.”
Norris took the positives when reminded of McLaren’s performance compared to a year ago. However he remained resolute his rivals were a step ahead at Silverstone:
“When you look at it like that, of course. And sometimes you’ve got to remind yourselves to think like that. But you’re also here because it’s where we deserve to be now and we’re fighting at the top. We’re fighting the good guys, the smarter people, and for me they’ve done a better job than us.”
Feature Image Credit: McLaren Racing Media Centre