McLaren stand by their decision to pit Lando Norris during yesterday’s Brazilian Grand Prix, despite the subsequent red flag which took them out of contention for victory.
Norris was running in second place as rain intensified during the race. He changed tyres during a Virtual Safety Car period, which ended as he pitted. That cost him positions to his championship rival Max Verstappen and both Alpine drivers.Norris was able to use his fresher intermediate tyres to quickly close on the leaders as the conditions deteriorated, until the race was neutralised by a Safety Car. Then Franco Colapinto crashed, triggering a red flag, which allowed the drivers ahead of Norris to fit fresh tyres without the cost of pitting, to his intense frustration.
Despite being disadvantaged by the timing of the red flag, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella insisted they had no regrets over their decision to bring Norris into the pits.
“There’s a few things we need to look into from our side,” he told Viaplay. “We have to say that some of the positions we lost with the red flag, we felt it was the right thing to pit when so much water was coming. And we don’t regret that.
“It was a cautious pit stop. It ultimately paid for the cars behind us that took a bit of risk of staying out, and then the red flag kind of reset the race. So some learning to take on board, but also some positives.”
Norris restarted the race in fourth place behind three drivers who did not change tyres before the red flag. From there he fell behind George Russell and Charles Leclerc, finishing sixth ahead of team mate Oscar Piastri.
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Although the result was likely a fatal blow for Norris’ championship hopes, McLaren extended their lead over Ferrari at the top of the constructors’ standings. Stella said that mitigated the team’s disappointment.
“Obviously, when you start in pole position, you always hope that you can finish P1,” he said. “The race has been very eventful and some of the events didn’t play to our favour and this means that actually we finished far from the podium. But still with good points.
“It was important to stay in the race. If we look at the constructors’ championship, it’s important that we out-score Ferrari and this sets the situation strongly for the final part of the season.”
Stella praised Verstappen for his drive to victory from 17th on the grid. “I would like to take the opportunity to congratulate Max for a really very strong, impressive race starting from the back of the grid, and Alpine, they have done a good job,” he said. “They deserve to score the podium today. Well done to them.”
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Moi
4th November 2024, 10:49
In these conditions, with 3 rookies on track, I’d say the chances of one or more red flags was very high.
Hindsight is 20/20 and all that, but as a calculated gamble (not luck!) you might ask if some regrets might not be in order..
Craig
4th November 2024, 11:20
It’s impossible to predict when a big enough crash will happen (let’s not forget Hulkenburg, Stroll and Saniz all had incidents as well, far more experienced drivers that Colapinto) and you get to a point where it’s more of a risk to keep going as it could be you causing the big crash. There’s no one good solution or strategy in that situation, so you really do need to rely on luck.
Mayrton
4th November 2024, 13:06
Totally disagree. They binned it. In wet conditions you always expect a VSC, SC or Red Flag. So, as long as there is no need to pit (which there wasn’t given others were able to continue on these tires), you don’t pit in anticipation of such situation occurring. Classic mistake. And then to call it luck for others just underlines the long way they still have to g(r)o(w).
Craig
4th November 2024, 13:46
We’ve also had plenty of instances of teams anticipating something that never ends up occurring, losing out massively. It’s a gamble one way or the other.
Mayrton
5th November 2024, 8:37
I would label it an educated guess.
Ludewig
4th November 2024, 12:11
It’s not just a crash that can bring out a red flag, but also heavy rain. So perhaps RB and Alpine read the radar better and recognized that a sudden, large increase in the rain intensity would result in a red flag before the cost of the pit stop could be made up on track.
Michael
4th November 2024, 12:53
RB pitted both their drivers some pitted for full wets. The forecast on screen however was that the rain would ease within 1-2 minutes as Colapinto crashed.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
4th November 2024, 18:30
I wonder if, had they not decided for a SC and then red flag, the full wet choice would’ve paid off, I heard the same in terms of forecast, and I’m guessing there would’ve only been a brief window (5 mins?) where the full wets would actually outperform the intermediates, it’s more of a safe choice, reducing the risk of going off, than time-saving.
Shaun Robinson
4th November 2024, 11:48
No regrets for losing the race, huh? COPE.
Ludewig
4th November 2024, 12:08
Not unexpected. The teams that make many strategic mistakes tend to express high confidence in questionable decisions.
Michael
4th November 2024, 12:40
To be fair if Colapinto hadn’t crashed they were looking good. Verstappens tyres were worn and would have had to pit. Ocon had pulled away a lot prior to the safety car and Gasly closed right up to Verstappen with Norris and Russell were right behind. Even with speed relative to Verstappen both Alpines would need to pit to stay on track.
And if Hulkenberg had not committed a red flag offence the virtual safety car would not have ended so early and Russell and Norris may have pitted under virtual safety car.
With all that Verstappen may have just passed them all anyway…
Joe Seph
4th November 2024, 13:30
If Stroll didn’t postpone the start for 15 minutes… maybe all the drivers would have to change their inters before the downpour and the SC or Red flag
And that footage of Stroll in the pits smiling after qualy crash while Drugovich behind him probably seething. If Lance didn’t want to drive this race, give it to the local hope.
SpaFrancorchamps (@spafrancorchamps)
4th November 2024, 12:40
They should regret it. I was watching the race with my brother and told him immediately that the race was soon going to be red flagged because of the amount of water and Max would get a free tyre change, if he were to keep it on track. Again a very stupid decision. It was a no brainer to stay out.
Mayrton
4th November 2024, 13:08
+1, were saying the same thing here.. The minute they came in I knew they threw it away.
Ray West (@raynaud2211)
4th November 2024, 18:32
Indeed but also, he could not overtake Russell but could clearly drive faster. So why pit at the same time baffles me.
Mayrton
5th November 2024, 8:39
You are right. They need to iron out the final wrinkles to have a real shot at the title next season. I hope they will since I am a huge McLaren fan.
Grapmg
5th November 2024, 12:14
There is an article on this site that explains why Max (and Occon) didn’t have the opportunity to pit under VSC. I also read in the radio transcripts that Max sweared he missed that opportunity. I think McLaren boxed because Lando requested to box earlier. But I guess Red bull would have done the same If they could have.
FS005
4th November 2024, 13:32
At the very least McLaren should’ve done the opposite to Russell.
Like why did they just follow him in. McLaren were lucky at the time that Norris just handled those conditions better and was able to get past but that still cost him seconds.
The team really needs to start doing better strategically. This is just not that hard.
David BR (@david-br)
4th November 2024, 14:39
How does ‘no regrets’ reconcile with ‘lessons to be learnt’?
No regrets implies that they would make the same decision in the same circumstances. Lessons to be learnt implies that they wouldn’t make the same decision (they learnt a lesson).
Anyhow it was obviously the wrong call. Lando could and should have stayed out. His main reason for pitting – repeated countless times on the radio before the red flag – wasn’t because of his tyres posing a risk but because he thought fresh tyres and/or the pit stop would allow him to finally pass Russell. But his focus had to be on what Verstappen was doing. Handing his title rival track position wasn’t the right call. And yes it was obvious that the race was going to be red flagged within a few laps (either because the rain was too heavy or someone was going to crash out).
David (@davidjwest)
4th November 2024, 15:28
Absolutely right, the focus should have been on Verstappen and covering him off – but realistically Norris also needed a win to eat into that lead in the championship.
So failed on both counts then.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
4th November 2024, 18:37
Mostly because drivers insist staying out on inters in full wet conditions, we had 5 pitting for full wets, but let’s say even 15 pit, the few who stay out on inters are gonna crash and bring out a red flag.
There should probably be some forcing on full wets rule when the conditions are clearly too much for inters.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
4th November 2024, 18:38
It could be done based on the lap time, you set a lap time based on track, here you could say: when the laptimes go above 1.28 for everyone, it’s mandatory to pit for full wets.
David (@davidjwest)
4th November 2024, 15:26
Had Norris not lost the lead at the start (unlikely given his starting performances this season) then they wouldn’t have pitted him when they did.
He looked to have the pace to pull away in the lead and build a nice advantage, only has himself to blame for the title now being effectively over.
MargusP
4th November 2024, 17:06
Swap Piastri and Norris was not the smartest thing i believe.
Tommy C (@tommy-c)
4th November 2024, 19:23
Really? They should. It wasn’t even one of those things where it’s clearer in hindsight. Unless his inters were so worn he was effectively driving with slicks, staying out was the only sensible thing to do. The chances of a red flag were high as soon as the downpour started and giving up track position to Max was insane. If Max pitted, sure, no problem. But pitting before Max made no sense. Ultimately, I think it’s largely moot as Lando was making mistakes all over the place. Max probably would have passed him at some point but Lando could have salvaged a podium.
ADUB SMALLBLOCK (@waptraveler)
4th November 2024, 23:54
That’s just being stubborn to not say it was a mistake! ALL weekend showcased the high chance of red flags!
ADUB SMALLBLOCK (@waptraveler)
4th November 2024, 23:56
I want to edit that, but no such feature. I MEANT to say it was stubborn to not REGRET the decision.
Mayrton
5th November 2024, 11:28
Never mind this. Where is article nr 15 about how Lando got away with a start infringement? We would be up to article 15 by now had it been Max. You know I am right. Everybody would be fuming about the leniency granted to Max.
And where are the detailed and long articles on the VSC timing in the Sprint or the red flag timing during quali. I am sure that would they have benefitted Max rather than Lando we would have had a vast amount of articles on this as well.