Norris Outlines McLaren's 'False Hope' That Didn't Help His Race

Thursday, 11 April 2024 at 00:15

Lando Norris revealed his team's false hope that decreased his podium chances during the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix.

McLaren F1 driver Lando Norris had a fantastic qualifying session at Suzuka Circuit during the fourth race weekend of the season, putting his car on the second row in P3, right behind Max Verstappen on the starting grid.

He managed to retain his position ahead of Carlos Sainz during the first stint in the race, and it seemed like he could be a challenger for the podium.

His team then made a controversial decision when they called him into the pits to cover off George Russell, who was far from being in the fight for the podium.

This didn't help Norris's pace later on when he had to extend his third stint. He was indirectly overtaken by Charles Leclerc, who was able to do only one stop race, and Sainz, who was faster in the end.

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This meant that the McLaren driver finished in P5, which he suggested would have been seen as a great result if he hadn't started from P3. He told the media after the race:

"It felt a lot worse out there, only 10 seconds behind [Sainz in third], I think is a good job by us. And it was 30 [seconds] then to the win, which for as bad as it felt, it isn't as bad as it looks from my eyes."

"The tire degradation is huge; we hoped for more -maybe that was a bit of a false hope. That's why it feels a bit tougher. If we started further back I think we would have been happy with P5."

The papaya driver also suggested after the race that his qualifying performance probably made his team look a bit stronger than it was in reality.

Even the team principal, Andrea Stella, suggested after the weekend that he sees McLaren as the third fastest team (which means P5 and P6 in the race) and would like to at least retain this position until the end of the year.