Norris' engineer reveals how he kept Norris calm in the closing stages
F1 News
Lando Norris made his own history on Sunday after winning his first Formula 1 Grand Prix in Miami. However, the driver could not have done it without the help of his team, including his race engineer Will Joseph. The McLaren engineer said the hard work of the team has certainly been 'worthwhile', given it has now converted to a new first place trophy to add to the collection.
Speaking to F1TV, Joseph commented on how he dealt with the nerves of the last laps: "You just treat the race like it is any other race so we were monitoring everything like we normally do, Lando was driving very, very well so you try and forget it you try and put that aside and just behave like normal."
This is not the first time Norris has come close to scoring his first win. In Sochi 2021, it looked as if the British driver was set to take the central podium, before sliding off the track and allowing Lewis Hamilton to take the lead.
As Joseph said: "The pain I don't think about, we try to ignore that in terms of how hard we worked, we've all worked very, very hard from day one. When we started off with Lando we talked about what the journey was going to be like and how we were going to get there. He's done a fantastic job and everyone who supported him has done amazing, McLaren and the team around him have been amazing. I'm beginning to lose words but it comes down to hard work and everyone has done the hard work, under Andrea's leadership the whole team's coming together and we're in a good place. "
'That's what makes it all worthwhile'
For the Miami weekend, McLaren introduced 10 upgrades on Norris' car. Joseph believes the package should also "favour other circuits more than it does here in Miami," giving the team hope this is not the last time they see one of their drivers on the top podium.
Discussing what it felt like to announce to Norris he was P1, Joseph commented: "It felt strange to be honest because the whole time you're wondering if something's going to go wrong so it felt great but hearing everyone else's reaction actually is more exciting than your own reaction, so hearing Lando excited, hearing Zak to the side of you, I turned to Andrea and seeing his excitement, that's what makes it worthwhile."