Norris says his handling of McLaren's team orders was "stupid"
F1 News
The team orders that hampered McLaren at the Hungarian Grand Prix are still the biggest talking point in the paddock as the F1 circus arrives in Spa-Francorchamps for the Belgian Grand Prix. Drivers in the paddock and in press conferences have been asked what they would have done if they were in that position at the Hungaroring, but what do the actual drivers involved think about it days afterwards? Lando Norris explains.
Norris 'not proud' after team orders dominated the headlines
After starting Sunday's Grand Prix in Budapest on pole, it was a perfect chance for the Brit to close the gap to Max Verstappen in the World Championship battle. However, a great start from teammate Oscar Piastri in P2 meant he dived down Norris' inside, taking the lead on lap 1 and continued to lead throughout the race. However, on lap 49, Norris retook the lead after he came into the pits before Piastri, undercutting his teammate and taking the lead.
McLaren ordered that Norris must give the position back to Piastri before the end of the race after making the mistake of not bringing in the Australian first, but as the end of the race drew nearer, the gap between Norris and Piaatri increased, and Norris seemed to be ignoring the requests of his race engineer on the team radio. It looked like McLaren had made a huge blunder, but with three laps to go, Norris slowed down on the start/finish straight to hand the victory to his teammate, taking the shine of the Australian's fantastic performance.
"The fact that I kind of clouded over Oscar's first race win in Formula 1 is something I've not felt too proud about," explained Norris, speaking to several media sources including GPblog in Spa. "The fact that we had a 1-2 and that was barely a headline after the race, the fact that we had a 1-2 and nothing was really spoken about it from that side, yeah that's what I felt worse about."
Norris showed obvious disappointment from this, and it was a disappointing narrative that came out on a brilliant 1-2 for the British team, showing that they have the potential to fight in the drivers' and constructors' championships. Norris knows that these issues need to be handled much differently if they want to challenge for the titles, saying, "It could it have been handled differently from a team and personal side? Yes. I don’t think we’d have been having this conversation now in some ways. Whether people on the outside think or come up with their own stories of what happened and what I would have done and wouldn't have done, that kind of thing. I don't mind about that."
Norris says it was "stupid" to not let Piasri pass straightaway
The Brit is still overly critical about his handling of the situation too, commenting on what he would have done differently if the situation arose again: "Just let him pass straight away. It's such a stupid thing that I didn't because we were free to race. I could have just let him pass and still tried to overtake him, to race him. It sounds so simple now, but it's not something that went through my head at the time. I was just in a good rhythm, and things were going well at the time. As soon as they boxed me ahead of him, I was going to have to let him go. It was a bit silly and dentsy, but I didn't go out."
But coming into Spa this weekend, the 24-year-old and McLaren have spoken about the incident and say it is water under the bridge. "We discussed it, we spoke about it, and both sides could have done things a little bit better and a little bit differently. We had it. We've learned from it and hopefully done better this time," Norris concluded.