Lando Norris believes that McLaren “threw away” the 2024 British GP win following strategy mishaps that included a late call to switch to slicks in a mixed conditions race.
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A thrilling 2024 British Grand Prix saw Lewis Hamilton cross the finish line to take his ninth win at the circuit. Max Verstappen followed close behind in P2 with Lando Norris rounding off the podium in P3.
Despite loosing position to Verstappen on the opening lap, Norris grew into the race thanks to the mixed conditions that suited his and teammate Oscar Piastri’s pace. When the circuit was at its wettest, he was able to maintain the lead.
However, when McLaren pitted him to slicks towards the end, he lost the lead to Hamilton after stopping a lap later than the race winner. As his soft tyres began to degrade, he then lost his second place position to Verstappen, who was on the better tyre.
Post the race, Norris shared, “[He and the team] are not making the right decisions, but at the same time I blame myself today for not making some of the right decisions. I hate it. I hate ending in this position and having excuses for not doing a good enough job.
“So many things were going well, and we threw it away in the final stop. It was one lap, but also I don’t think it was the lap.
“I think even if I boxed on the perfect lap, our decision to go onto the soft was the wrong one, and I think Lewis still would have won no matter what. Two calls from our side cost us everything today, so, especially here, it’s pretty disappointing.”
“Too Influenced” by Hamilton
McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella believes the team were “too influenced” by Hamilton’s decision to go to softs in an attempt to catch up with and beat the Mercedes driver.
“In those conditions we wanted to check also with Lando what his preference was, what we should be going after and one aspect was also do you think it will be tricky? This we didn’t ask,” he explained.
“The sense of asking with Lando, deciding with Lando was will it be tricky going on a C2 compound in these conditions but in fairness as a matter of fact it wasn’t that tricky because Verstappen on a hard compound managed the transition to the dry tyres without big issues.
“So I think this one was a decision that from the people we should have taken once again – like in stopping Oscar in the double stack, we should have taken the responsibility to say the medium is just the right tyre, we go for it.
“I think in checking with Lando we kind of self-doubted and this led us to follow this direction, which in hindsight was important.”
What Next?
While the team has made continuous improvement this season to challenge Red Bull in the Driver’s and Constructor’s Championships, it is races such as this one that highlight the faults the team must improve on.
McLaren has had one of the fastest cars in recent races, which saw Norris win at the Miami Grand Prix. However, today it remains clear that the team threw away a 2024 British GP win that should have been theirs with either driver. Had the strategy calls been different, they could have enjoyed a 1-2 on the podium.
Image Credit: McLaren
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