Lando Norris lost valuable points due to a wrong strategy in Jeddah, but he is happy that his McLaren team made the attempt
Although the strategy didn’t work out in the end, Lando Norris is happy that McLaren took a risk on him in Saudi Arabia. Norris was one of the few drivers to stay out on his mediums during the safety car period, but ended up losing positions because he had to come in for another pit stop
Before the safety car phase triggered by Lance Stroll, the Englishman was sixth, but he only saw the chequered flag in eighth place because George Russell and Oliver Bearman finished ahead of him thanks to their strategy. Teammate Oscar Piastri had immediately switched to Hards and finished fourth.
“The decision to split the strategy was not easy,” says team boss Andrea Stella. Because logically, changing tires behind the safety car was the right strategy. The drivers did not have to come back in for a pit stop, and because you could theoretically do the whole race on the hard, it would be difficult to overtake the drivers on the hard later on.
“We knew we could lose a few positions, but with another safety car at the right time or a red flag – and that’s not far from reality here – Lando could have been properly rewarded with something like a podium,” said Stella. “That’s why we thought it was worth it.”
Norris also believes this decision was the right one, even though he could now have had four more points in his account if he had simply held his position. “You never know, and we just wanted to do something different and not just stay behind,” he says.
Norris: Are sometimes too conservative
“We could have won a lot of points or lost a few. In the end we lost a few, but that’s the way it is sometimes,” said the Briton.
“It was a good effort and it was the right thing to do. Because sometimes I feel like we’re a bit conservative. But it’s nice to be a bit more aggressive and try something,” says Norris. “So I’m happy with the decision. “
After the safety car phase, Norris drove for a long time behind the two Red Bulls and Charles Leclerc in fourth position and finally came into the pits after 37 laps – but earlier than desired and for different tires than desired.
This was because McLaren reacted to Lewis Hamilton, who had come in for a tire change one lap earlier and was around four seconds behind Norris by then. Mercedes had given the seven-time world champion soft tires for the last 14 laps
Hamilton forced to react
If the regulations had not forced him to make a pit stop, Norris would have been happy to get through the race without stopping because he had the feeling that he could finish well on the mediums. His stop 13 laps before the end was also “not the best strategy” because the soft ran out of air at the end.
“But I had to cover Lewis,” says Norris. “And if I had gone on the hard tire, he would have got me because the hard takes a bit longer to get up to speed and he was already very close to me anyway. “
So he had to protect himself against the Mercedes and couldn’t get Oliver Bearman in front of him, because the Soft is only good for two laps, according to Norris. The hard would have been better, but he couldn’t do that because of Hamilton, who would probably have overtaken him and he would have been stuck behind him due to the lack of McLaren top speed.
Speaking of Bearman: The Ferrari youngster put in a strong debut race for Norris: “The Ferrari is a very strong car, and for him to get in and get so much out of it on the first weekend is really impressive. “
