McLaren and Norris face fierce criticism: 'It's just a drama'
F1 News
In a weekend when Max Verstappen and Red Bull once again failed to score a huge bulk of points, Lando Norris and his McLaren team failed to capitalise on Red Bull's recent poor form. The Brit only gained three points to Verstappen in the battle for the world title. Christijan Albers, former F1 driver and former team boss, fails to understand why the McLaren did not punish the current weaknesses of Verstappen and Red Bull rock hard.
Speaking on De Telegraaf podcast, Albers could draw no other conclusion about McLaren and Norris: "It's just a drama," the analyst said, only to repeat his words. "Really just a drama. They are just busy marketing; papaya-rules here, papaya-rules there," said Albers, citing as an example, the way McLaren gave away the Grand Prix victory in Italy recently.
"It's very simple, whoever is first at the first corner [stays first], then we hold position and look ahead. That's what every professional Formula One team does. And from there you can strategically look at what options there are; where do we go and where do we want to go. First of all, genius action by Piastri in Monza. But if you really start analysing, you see that Norris has a full moment of oversteer. Then you can also fly off in pairs."
Verstappen consistent while Norris is not
In Azerbaijan, Albers noted McLaren's stumble. Norris missed Q2 as he suffered from a yellow flag situation at the end of Q1. However, according to Albers, McLaren and Norris should not have been surprised by that yellow flag. "Why the arrogance? The arrogance that you think nothing can happen in one lap? Why are you taking so much risk?" felt Albers, who pointed out that Norris would have been better off going out earlier and doing two laps in the final phase of Q1. "With used tyres he is still among the first 15. Here was the moment he could maximise in terms of points. And they don't do that every time."
In the end, the conclusion about Norris is: "He is not consistent. That's now the difference between world champion material and not. He has to work very hard on that. He just doesn't maximise. And a Max Verstappen does," Albers explained why his fellow Dutchman is still comfortably in the lead of the championship.
This article has been created in collaboration with Ludo van Denderen.
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