Lando Norris finished third in the British Grand Prix after losing places to Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen in the closing stages; Norris led at Silverstone before a poor tyre choice at his final pit stop blew the McLaren driver's chances of victory
Monday 8 July 2024 15:06, UK
Lando Norris admitted to being "fed up" after narrowly missing out on another Formula 1 victory at the British Grand Prix.
Norris came from fourth to take the lead at his home race, but the British driver and his McLaren team combined to make several errors around a final pit stop which gave up the lead to eventual winner Lewis Hamilton, before Max Verstappen passed him for second in the closing stages.
Since claiming his maiden F1 victory at the Miami Grand Prix in May, Norris has had strong chances of victory at five of the six races that have followed, but has failed to take advantage of having the most consistent race pace during that period.
"I know (it's a podium at the British GP) but I'm fed up of just saying I should have done better and I should have done this and could have done that, or whatever," Norris told Sky Sports F1.
" 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 1 and I'm not going to settle for something less when we should have achieved it."
By passing Norris in the closing stages, Red Bull's Verstappen extended his lead over the Brit at the top of the drivers' standings to 84 points.
Norris finished second to Verstappen in Imola, Canada and Spain, before damage sustained in a collision between the pair when battling for the lead in Austria last weekend forced Norris to retire.
"I'm not (being hard on myself)," Norris continued.
"Should we have won a race today? Yes? Did we? No. So I'm not going to be happy with another third place. I lost more points to Max, so I'm not going to be happy with that.
"Plenty of good things, there are positives, yes, but I'm only going to be satisfied with the end result and I'm not."
In a thriller at Silverstone, Norris dropped from third on the grid to fourth after being passed by Verstappen on the opening lap, but was able to scythe his way through to the lead as the McLaren excelled in slippery conditions when rain began to fall.
Norris held the lead as heavier rain forced the field to switch to intermediate tyres, and maintained a lead over Hamilton until the rain eased to set up a crucial final pit stop to go back onto slick tyres.
Hamilton came in at the end of lap 38 as Norris stayed out for a further circuit, which enabled the Mercedes to gain time on the faster compound, while the McLaren driver compounded the problem by running slightly deep into his pit box to lose further time.
But most crucially, McLaren gave Norris the same soft tyre that Mercedes had put Hamilton on for the remaining 13 laps.
Verstappen, who pitted at the same time as Hamilton, was on hard tyres, which gave the Dutchman more freedom to push without fear of suffering degradation in the final stages.
Norris was caught and passed by Verstappen on lap 48, while Hamilton was able to hold on for victory with relative ease. Frustratingly for McLaren, Norris' team-mate Oscar Piastri showed strong pace in the final stint on the same new medium tyre that Norris had available.
Reflecting on his regrets, Norris said: "Just the two at the end. Just what tyre to box on to 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.
"Boxing to the soft, that's a team call, that's between me. So many good parts but, again, just a couple that let us down and threw away the win so pretty disappointed."
Explaining why he and the team came to the decision to fit a soft tyre, Norris said: "Lewis was on it, 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 beating them.
"I expected to come out ahead of the Mercedes, I didn't, but even if I came out ahead I wouldn't have won the race because we were too slow."
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella admitted the wrong call had been made regarding Norris' tyres.
Stella also conceded that McLaren had made a mistake earlier in the race when choosing not to double stack Piastri behind Norris in the pits, which resulted in the Australian dropping from second to fifth as the leaders switched to intermediate tyres in the rain.
"Difficult conditions, mixed. Many calls to be made. Many were right but there were a couple that in hindsight we would do differently," Stella told Sky Sports F1.
"I think we would acknowledge that giving one more lap with Oscar, we lost a lot of time before going onto the intermediate tyres. We didn't want to lose the time in the double shuffle but in hindsight, it would have been the right thing to do.
"And the second call is that with Lando, we should have gone on medium tyres at the end rather than trying to match Lewis. I think it would have been safer to be competitive at the end of the race, and even if Lewis had been ahead after the stop, then I think we would have had our shot at the end of the race with more consistent tyres.
"It's easy in hindsight. They are all opportunities to grow and improve as a team. I think overall, it's great once again for McLaren to be in a podium finish, Oscar P4, many points - important for both championships."
In the cases of both Norris and Piastri, lengthy discussions between driver and pit wall took place over team radio, which Stella admitted contributed to the wrong decisions being taken.
"For both Oscar not going one more lap and for Lando not going on soft but actually going on medium, it should have been a call of the pit wall," he added.
"So we take the responsibility for this. The drivers, they already keep themselves quite busy in keeping their car on track in these conditions. The pit wall have more information. It's for us to make these calls.
"We will grow and learn, but we are also excited and encouraged that we keep being competitive and fighting at the front. A bit of a bittersweet day because we know we could have won the race, but ultimately many positives and we take it from here looking forward to the next events."
Despite failing to maximise their potential, McLaren were the highest scorers in the constructors' standings, reducing their deficit to leaders Red Bull to 78 points and closing within seven points of second-placed Ferrari.
Next up for F1 is the Hungarian Grand Prix from Budapest on July 19-21. You can watch every session live on Sky Sports F1. Stream every F1 race and more with a NOW Sports Month Membership - No contract, cancel anytime
