Whilst his teammate may have finished on the podium, Lando Norris finished further down the grid, in P6 behind Max Verstappen. After the race, the British driver was frustrated with his performance.
Speaking to GPblog and others in the paddcock, Norris stated that he "misjudged" the start. "I just didn't want to get taken out in Turn 1, so I left the gap and just misjudged the exit a little bit." With Verstappen's penalty, the McLaren driver started P4 on the grid, but lost three places at the start. After this, he needed to recover, but he struggled. "It was just impossible to overtake. The overtaking sucked today, and I think there were very few overtakes actually done on the track but just in the pit stops," he explained. "The car was quick. I just don’t feel I could have maximised that."
Who does Norris blame for his performance?
Norris' recent performance has been strong, finishing second in Hungary last weekend in the first McLaren one-two since 2021. The Brit is behind Verstappen in the Driver's standings, with the gap growing again today after he finished behind the Dutchman. Nevertheless, there have been repeated mistakes this season which have cost him crucial points. Asked what this could be because of, the McLaren driver replied, "Some of my starts have not been great. I've lost a good amount of points off the line and now turn one again, easily a podium or even more. There isn't one reason. I was just trying a bit too hard and paying a price for that."
as I've said before Lando is not as good as people say he is he always makes mistakes but he doesn't seem to learn from them he has a chance now to be world champion this year as red bulls car is not performing as well as it was if Lando doesn't get his act together Oscar will be world champion before him
Norris calls of always staying out and then reacting is cost him big points and wins. Canada, Spain, UK and now spa. Plus McLaren won't win any title while they have their current crap strategist.
I'm putting it out there, Oscar will be world champion before Lando.
He needs to improve his skills at the starting grid for sure.
And his strategy and small mishaps that he has. Oscar on the other hand is impressing me more and more by the race, that kid is something truly special.
Man, I wish Red Bull could've taken advantage of his situation at Alpine. Anyway, that's that.
He does struggle a bit on racepace sometimes! Very quick in quali and does get better as we go along!
Of they have the car to beat next season, who knows at this point, it could be a VERY interesting title fight!!
If that turns out to be the case, I'm going for Oscar Piastri 2025 F1 WDC.
In the next years Piastri will be the favourite driver at Mclaren if you can keep making mistakes and lost positions at the start...Of course you could be the wingman of Max and no.2 driver at RBR :)) if you don t raise the game..
Exactly, overtaking sucked today unless a chasing car had a big performance delta. Shortening of DRS by 75m was the main culprit here. If they keep it permanently, Spa won't be the track where one can easily overtake.
Yeah, not a very exciting race in terms of overtakes. Most of the overtaking were done by "let's undercut him in the pits".
Yes. It has nice long straights but overtaking isnt that easy anymore at SPA. In the race, we saw a number of overtakes down the field, but that was mainly because of various cars coming into the pits at different times on different tyre strategies and the car that was able to overtake had a huge tyre advantage. On the other hand, when we look at the front runners we saw Lando stuck behind Max, Max stuck behind Charles. Max was also stuck for a long time behind Russell earlier in the race, and Russell was also following Checo for many laps. Towards the end of the race, Hamilton couldnt get pass George even with 20 laps newer tyres!
Yes, very disappointing race in that regard! Pretty sure that the DRS zone will back to normal next year ?
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