Lando Norris stated that his McLaren Formula 1 team occasionally plays it “a little bit safe” and that he has no remorse about his “aggressive” strategy call during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
When Lance Stroll’s incident early in the Jeddah race resulted in a safety car period, Norris was one of only four drivers who chose to gain track position by continuing. Having started sixth, he was left leading at the restart until Max Verstappen passed him two circuits later.
Similar to Lewis Hamilton, Nico Hulkenberg, and Zhou Guanyu, who were also non-stoppers, the expectation was that he would be able to make an inexpensive pit stop at a later safety car or virtual safety car time.
But the race was cut short before the checkered flag flew, and Norris had to stop the race earlier than the team had intended to protect Hamilton, who had switched to softs in the final laps. In the end, he placed seventh, two spots lower than his grid position.
When questioned by Autosport about the decision to stay on course and not pit, Norris replied, “You never know at the time, and we wanted to try something different, and not just stay behind.”
“We could have gained a lot of points, or we could have lost a few. And in the end, we lost a few. But that’s just the way it is sometimes. So it was a good try, I think it was the correct call to make.
“Sometimes I feel like we’re a little bit safe. It’s nice to be a little bit more aggressive, and try something different. So I’m happy with our decision. It wasn’t the best one, or let’s say the correct one. But that’s in hindsight. I’m still happy with how we tried to execute it all.”
Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
After the Mercedes driver stopped, Norris acknowledged that he had to adopt Hamilton’s strategy and change to soft tires for the next lap.
“I had to, because he would have gotten me if I went on the hards,” he murmured. It merely takes a few more laps for the hards to finish. Still, he was dangerously near to getting me. Going onto the softs is what I would have done.
“I was thrilled that I could have gone to the chequered flag on the medium.” It was obvious that the pace was slower than that of the other males.
Five laps later, the softs were the right decision. We didn’t employ the greatest tactic, in my opinion. But that had us a little bit over when I had to cover for Lewis. We did our best at what we could.
With the swap to softs, Norris had a chance to close the gap on Ferrari rookie Oliver Bearman, but he was able to hold off Hamilton.
Regarding the teenager, Norris remarked, “I think he drove a good race.” The softs performed well for the first two laps before peaking and blowing up. In retrospect, perhaps a hard would have been preferable. But as I mentioned earlier, Lewis prevented me from doing that.
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