How Norris and McLaren used Spa rain and a ‘super-undercut’ to salvage points

Lando Norris’ Belgian Grand Prix appeared to be over by lap 17.

The McLaren driver lost four places in his opening stint on softs. That led the team to rush him into the pits as early as lap five and gambling on a compound no one had any experience of that weekend – the hard tyre. It backfired horribly, and the two Alfa Romeo drivers relegated him to 16th place.

“The goal was to get Lando out of the cars around him, give him some free air and try to go long to then finish on a soft tyre,” explained McLaren team principal Andrea Stella. “But I have to admit that our judgement on the grip of the hard tyres was incorrect. The tyres didn’t have much grip at all and Lando found himself again in the mix of the other cars.”

Norris’ salvation came from the heavens. Rain began to fall shortly before half distance in the 44-lap race. It never got strong enough for anyone to switch to full wet or even intermediate tyres, but it did force drivers to back off. Race leader Max Verstappen, who had a big scare going through Eau Rouge and Raidillon, backed over by five seconds per lap.

McLaren saw an opportunity. They needed to get Norris off his hard tyres and, so summoned him in on lap 17 for a set of softs. This was extremely early for a second pit stop – George Russell hadn’t even made his first by this point.

But a fresh, warm set of soft tyres proved just the thing at this point. Norris came out of the pits in last place but began lapping whole seconds faster than the entire field. Between laps 19 and 22 no one was quicker – the second-fastest drivers on those laps (Verstappen on laps 19 and 22, and Nico Hulkenberg in between) lost a total of 5.3 seconds to the McLaren.

Following their strategic miscue early on, “luckily the race gave us the opportunity to rectify the situation by going on soft very early,” said Stella. “We timed going on soft with the rain.

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“I would like to praise the work done by our people that from the factory and from the track supporting the operations by observing the rain development because they gave us information that allowed us to think that we can go through the rain on dry tyres.

“Timing this on to the soft tyres allowed Lando to recover a massive amount of time on anybody else that was out there on the used tyres and they needed to be much more careful than Lando while driving under the rain.”

Others spent lap after lap losing seconds to Norris. The upshot was he gained a remarkable 12 places when they pitted – a super-undercut which propelled him to seventh place. Even Norris admitted he wasn’t quite sure how he got there.

Part of the reason Norris was able to perform this feat was that McLaren had ‘over-winged’ his car – i.e., he had too much downforce for dry conditions. Before the race he predicted McLaren’s rivals would have up to a 25kph advantage on him in the DRS zones, and so it proved.

But that extra downforce helped him when the rain fell and made it easier for him to keep his soft tyres alive for the mammoth, 27-lap stint which followed.

“Because we had enough downforce in the middle sector, that’s the reason why we could extend the run on the soft so long and actually retain competitiveness even when the rubber was almost finished on the soft tyres,” said Stella.

2023 Belgian Grand Prix lap chart

The positions of each driver on every lap. Click name to highlight, right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:

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2023 Belgian Grand Prix race chart

The gaps between each driver on every lap compared to the leader’s average lap time. Very large gaps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:

2023 Belgian Grand Prix lap times

All the lap times by the drivers (in seconds, very slow laps excluded). Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and toggle drivers using the control below:

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2023 Belgian Grand Prix fastest laps

Each driver’s fastest lap:

Rank	No.	Driver	Car	Lap time	Gap	Average speed (kph)	Lap no.
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1’47.305		234.98	44
2	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	1’48.922	1.617	231.49	32
3	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	1’49.841	2.536	229.55	35
4	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas-Ferrari	1’49.907	2.602	229.42	26
5	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1’50.188	2.883	228.83	27
6	2	Logan Sargeant	Williams-Mercedes	1’50.236	2.931	228.73	36
7	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	1’50.308	3.003	228.58	31
8	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1’50.436	3.131	228.32	30
9	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	1’50.439	3.134	228.31	27
10	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1’50.515	3.210	228.15	26
11	63	George Russell	Mercedes	1’50.603	3.298	227.97	25
12	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine-Renault	1’50.911	3.606	227.34	25
13	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin-Mercedes	1’50.938	3.633	227.28	42
14	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	1’50.993	3.688	227.17	27
15	3	Daniel Ricciardo	AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT	1’50.994	3.689	227.17	25
16	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	1’51.297	3.992	226.55	26
17	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT	1’51.394	4.089	226.35	26
18	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	1’51.682	4.377	225.77	26
19	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	1’53.138	5.833	222.86	9

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2023 Belgian Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

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2023 Belgian Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

Rank	No.	Driver	Team	Complete stop time (s)	Gap to best (s)	Stop no.	Lap no.
1	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	22.61		1	9
2	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	22.71	0.1	2	29
3	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	22.737	0.127	2	24
4	3	Daniel Ricciardo	AlphaTauri	22.843	0.233	1	5
5	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	22.887	0.277	1	14
6	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	23.012	0.402	2	30
7	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	23.023	0.413	2	27
8	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	23.085	0.475	1	6
9	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	23.085	0.475	1	10
10	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	23.09	0.48	1	12
11	2	Logan Sargeant	Williams	23.109	0.499	3	34
12	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	23.148	0.538	2	28
13	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	23.156	0.546	3	42
14	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	23.224	0.614	1	13
15	3	Daniel Ricciardo	AlphaTauri	23.29	0.68	2	22
16	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	23.303	0.693	1	7
17	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	23.339	0.729	2	25
18	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	23.362	0.752	1	6
19	23	Alexander Albon	Williams	23.529	0.919	3	33
20	2	Logan Sargeant	Williams	23.57	0.96	1	8
21	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	23.572	0.962	2	25
22	23	Alexander Albon	Williams	23.596	0.986	2	23
23	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	23.638	1.028	1	5
24	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	23.684	1.074	1	13
25	4	Lando Norris	McLaren	23.744	1.134	2	17
26	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	23.786	1.176	2	24
27	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	23.798	1.188	2	29
28	63	George Russell	Mercedes	23.837	1.227	1	22
29	2	Logan Sargeant	Williams	23.938	1.328	2	24
30	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo	24.045	1.435	2	25
31	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo	24.449	1.839	1	7
32	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas	24.571	1.961	1	12
33	4	Lando Norris	McLaren	25.012	2.402	1	5
34	23	Alexander Albon	Williams	25.015	2.405	1	7
35	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas	25.238	2.628	2	24
36	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	25.397	2.787	1	20
37	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	25.664	3.054	1	23

2023 Belgian Grand Prix

• Haas drivers fear losing battle for seventh after “grim weekend” in Spa
• Mercedes optimistic they’re “in the right place for winter” with development plan
• Ferrari not convinced by call to equalise engines: ‘Renault is not so far away’
• Ferrari staying “calm” amid swings in performance from race to race
• Pirelli proposes new “super-intermediate” to address wet weather tyre problems

Browse all 2023 Belgian Grand Prix articles