Lando Norris did not hide his disappointment at missing another chance to win a race this year after leading his home grand prix prior to his final pit stop.
The McLaren driver overtook Max Verstappen and the two Mercedes to take the lead of today’s race. He kept the lead as a mid-race shower prompted drivers to switch to intermediate tyres.But as the track dried out, Norris waited a lap longer than his two closest rivals to switch to slick tyres. Lewis Hamilton opted for softs and took the lead, while Verstappen switched to hards and closed on Norris, eventually passing him for second.
Norris scored his first grand prix victory in Miami, but has missed other potential opportunities for victory at the Red Bull Ring, Montreal and Imola. Asked in today’s press conference whether this was a win that got away, Norris said: “I’ve had that a lot lately, so I hate saying it again.
“But so many things were going well and we threw it away in the final stop. One lap [later], but also I didn’t think it was the [choice of] lap. I think even if I boxed on the perfect lap, our decision to go onto the softs was the wrong one.
“I think Lewis still would have won no matter what. So two calls from our side cost us everything today. So, especially here, pretty disappointing.”
But despite his frustration at missing so many chances to win, Norris does not believe McLaren have had the quickest car at any race yet.
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“When it was completely dry the Mercedes was a lot quicker. In the more slippery conditions, maybe we seemed a bit better. So we have work to do.
“I don’t think we’ve still had the weekend where we’ve clearly been the quickest. We’ve always been there or thereabouts, but never ‘the’ car.
“I think we need to keep working as a team. I need to keep working on my own stuff and just try to put it together because there are still so many positives. There are so many good things and so many things in place.
“But it’s frustrating when, a few times this season, we’ve thrown away something that should have been ours.”
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2024 British Grand Prix
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- Mercedes “will be in an even stronger position” after next upgrade – Hamilton
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- Why “under construction” McLaren still celebrate third place after missing a win
Coventry Climax
7th July 2024, 20:45
Who’s call is or was it, in the end? Norris does not have a very good track record where pitting choices are concerned, he’s thrown away decent results before, making the call or overruling the pitwall, on his own.
What they need is a good strategist/engineer that they can blindly trust to make the right calls.
But they’re very aware of it all themselves I suppose, and they’ll probably get there.
It takes everything to be perfect to become the dominant team though, and Norris himself is part of that, and he should maybe concentrate on that too.
BLS (@brightlampshade)
7th July 2024, 20:48
I believe Norris made the call for Softs, but the team should have probably (assuming they didn’t) pushed him to take the Mediums.
rprp
7th July 2024, 21:28
LN4: “We need to box, the soft is better now… any slick tyre”
MCL: “We can choose a medium to counter people like Verstappen (he is on hards) or we just a soft to counter people like Hamilton”
LN4: “I think Hamilton, or you think medium? I don’t mind”
MCL: “We are going softs”
Very different to Hamilton’s firm “No” to inters earlier when Merc told him it was the tyre of choice.
I don’t think Hamilton was the fastest driver today, but the experience really counted.
Pete
7th July 2024, 22:08
In defence of Lando, the driver is key in the decision of when to change tyres because they know the conditions out on track and can feel the grip but you’d expect the team to have quite more input regarding which compound will be the fastest. The driver can’t feel that until they doing it and by then, it’s too late to choose option b.
The team have a ridiculous amount of data as well as people employed to work this sort of stuff out and they got it wrong. It’ll be interesting to see the radio transcripts for the drivers in this race to see which decisions were made by the driver or the team.
rprp
7th July 2024, 22:39
True, but on the flip side, in the cool down room, Hamilton questioned Lando on why they didn’t go on mediums. Seemed an obvious enough choose for Lando to make, but agree that the loaded question from the team didn’t help one bit.
Aquila_GD
8th July 2024, 1:34
Mate, Hamilton was the fastest driver today. Look at the race time
Patrick (@paeschli)
7th July 2024, 20:59
What I don’t understand is why top teams have to see some midfield nobody like Magnussen do a pitstop before daring to pit themselves.
Don’t understand why Perez or Leclerc didn’t gamble with an early switch back onto slicks once it was obvious they would not score points today.
David (@nvherman)
8th July 2024, 0:24
I believe it’s because they want the gap to open up to feed their driver back into, then that’s one less car to get stuck behind before they can overtake
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
10th July 2024, 5:35
Yes, I’d have done something like that too in a situation like theirs, nothing to lose.
Mark (@mrcento)
7th July 2024, 21:28
I think Norris (And McLaren to some extent) are sometimes a bit too hard on themselves with the shudda, wouldda, couldda’s after races…. even if there’s a wrong choice in there, you can usually see what the intention was, but wow that was a bungle today.
The only way they could have got it any more wrong was probably leaving Lando out with Oscar for the first stop AND THEN double stacking them!
From not stopping Oscar for the double stack (Seriously, what did they expect to lose?, Lap times had already fallen off by more than the time he’d have waited and only deteriorating further, plus other teams, especially Merc were clearly double stacking as well, so realistically he was only going to lose 6 or 7 seconds to Lando and maybe 2 positions from 1 of the Mercs and possibly Max, as opposed to 20 seconds to Lando and about 6 positions doing the extra lap) ,to leaving Lando out a lap too long…. to Lando going long in the pit box…. to fitting the softs… the SOFTS for crying out loud, Lewis was only on them because he didn’t have mediums, why copy his forced disadvantage?, Even if they’d got out ahead of him and he’d got past, they knew fine well from practice the deg would kill them and could get back at him, they even said as much on the radio to Oscar before his stop!, laughably poor.
But Lewis deserved that win today to be fair, absolute masterclass. And it must be said, Max and Red Bull absolutely NAILED that strategically. Nowhere on pace, but very Schumi-esque, even on the days the pace isn’t there, they find a way to hang in and somehow still put themselves in contention at the end. The mark of a top, top race team.
David BR (@david-br)
8th July 2024, 0:49
@mrcento +1 Red Bull strategists and Verstappen really are the optimal racing team still.
Edvaldo
7th July 2024, 22:00
Mercedes went with the softs because them pitting first they would need a quick out lap to undercut Norris.
Norris came in a lap later and missed his marks, then went too hard too fast on the tyres. Maybe a bit desperate to see the win slipping away. With 6 laps to go Hamilton increased his pace and Norris had nothing left, his tyres already losing performance.
Given how Max lost ground to Hamilton for a couple of laps and then was faster until the end, Norris’s chances of winning with a harder tyre were huge.
F180 (@f180)
7th July 2024, 22:46
Waiting to hear back from Stella and Zak
GechiChan (@gechichan)
8th July 2024, 5:54
While I agree that McLaren bosses are at fault with some of these missed opportunities, it’s easy to forget what a tremendous job Stella and Zak have been doing for the last season and a half.
Remember how McLaren were not even fighting for points during early 2023? The car was a dog, Norris and Piastri were fighting for 16th place at most races early last year. Now they leapfrogged Ferrari, Mercedes and even RBR on race pace and are now the favourites (or at least in the fight) at every venue.
F180 (@f180)
8th July 2024, 12:35
Can’t deny the immense progress of McLaren. They were a shadow of past glory with Checo, Alonso and Daniel. Whatever the agenda Zak is into, winning races give a lot of bargaining power. Ask Checo, his lack of form is putting in danger his career and Horner can easily fire him to save himself if needed. F1 is a strange place, sporting results still provides a lot of leverage. That’s why Zak baffles me. He worked hard to make McLaren a contender and he is looking for world peace instead.
Matthijs (@matthijs)
8th July 2024, 13:23
Indeed, really impressive. This is the first time in 10 years that they are a top team again, and it shows that they are not yet there in terms of strategy compared to Red Bull who are used to winning. I hope McLaren can up their game once more.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
10th July 2024, 5:42
I would say it’s the first time in 12 years they are a top team, they stopped being one when hamilton left.
Patrick (@paeschli)
8th July 2024, 8:16
They are too busy focussing on Verstappen to see what’s wrong with their own team
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
10th July 2024, 5:43
Mediums would’ve been better also for defending from verstappen, the soft tyre choice was bad all around, you don’t pick soft to attack a driver on soft, nor to defend from a driver on hard.
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
8th July 2024, 9:00
I was looking for this comment !
Leroy (@g-funk)
7th July 2024, 23:32
It’s better to get these problems identified and corrected during this season so they can come back next season and fight for the championship. Or they could be like Ferrari and never learn from their mistakes.
Craig S
8th July 2024, 0:08
Until McLaren stop being reactive, and start being proactive, they’re going to keep coming up short. Miami was a fluke. The overcut doesn’t work the vast majority of the time. And yet for some reason, they keep going for it. Ironically, they keep losing track position, because they’re scared of losing track position. If they want to be winning races, they need to be putting FIRST. Not handing their opponents the advantage by letting them get the undercut.
Francesco (@schivo69)
8th July 2024, 7:12
Unfortunately it would have ended in disappointment, no matter which choice.
– soft tyres = we have seen what happened
– medium tyres= 2nd place at best, although I suspect that the RedBull would have been quicker on dry and hard tyres
– hard tyres = 2nd place at best
Result:
Best case scenario Lando would have got 2nd and gained 3 points more and would have made his Palme d’or nominated performance of the guy who lost his best friend on the battlefield anyway…
All this for 3 points? What about Oscar and the missed double stack? He should have rolled on the floor and stomping his feet on the hangar straight?
I understand the disappointment but maybe it’s time for Lando to show some maturity.
All this for 3 points…
Patrick (@paeschli)
8th July 2024, 8:18
The ideal strategy would have been to make the switch to inters sooner, the switch back to slicks sooner and Norris actually stopping where he was supposed to on his last stop (lost 2s during his stop due to him missing his marks and the jack guy having to re-adjust). That’s a lot of time lost over the course of a race.
ben
8th July 2024, 11:26
I disagree with that analysis @schivo69
– “medium tyres= 2nd place at best” – Piastri was 21 seconds behind Hamilton at their final stop and both pitted on the same lap. He closed the gap to 12.4 seconds at the end of the race. Norris only came out around 3 seconds behind Hamilton. With how strong DRS was yesterday I think it would have been an easy win for Norris if he was on the mediums.
Francesco (@schivo69)
8th July 2024, 21:09
Not sure that he would have had the tyre advantage to pass him, once in DRS. I understand this is my opinion. Would be interesting see how the delta laptimes between Oscar on medium and Lewis on soft was developing in the last laps. I haven’t analysed it but this could give a much better insight on what could have happened.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
10th July 2024, 5:50
https://en.mclarenf-1.com/2024/gp/1135/shedule
This is a great site for that kind of lap time comparisons, it just takes a few days after a race to upload that kind of stuff, silverstone isn’t ready yet, but you can select any driver to compare their lap times when it’s ready, and they tell you the lap times of both drivers, the position they have every lap, the amount a driver is faster by and their overall gap, as well as when they pitted, here’s an example for austria, which is already up:
https://en.mclarenf-1.com/2024/gp/s9248/lap_times
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
8th July 2024, 8:23
Is it time for Jenson Button to start asking him, “When will you win another Grand Prix?”
Jim from US (@jimfromus)
8th July 2024, 13:27
There was an article a few weeks ago that said something like NOR has never finished the first lap when starting a race from pole. This race he started 3rd and VER was by him in the first few turns. He starts horri
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
10th July 2024, 5:52
Yes, I noticed as well, I got used to it by now, but I was very disappointed before, in some cases he was the only possibility to give verstappen trouble and he kept losing the lead to him when he started on pole, and when he started second he was never able to challenge him at the start.