F1 News
McLaren admit strategy error with Norris
- Bevan Youl
Andreas Seidl, McLaren team principal, has admitted that the team got Lando Norris’ strategy wrong as he finished P11 at Silverstone.
During the early parts of the race Norris was in P7 but the team made an error not pitting him under the safety car.
The Brit again pitted late in the race from P8 with the team hoping that he could work his way back up through the field but was unsuccessful, finishing in P11.
Seidl thought that the data McLaren had received to pit was the right the right thing to do but admits it didn’t go as they wanted.
Seidl said (quoted by PlanetF1): “For Lando, with all the data we had from the tyres that came off the cars, we thought there was a high risk to run to the end of the race.
“In the end we wanted to try to go on new hards, fresh ones, and then try to get the competition towards the end of the race.
“But it looks like we would have needed five more laps.”
Despite the error and missed opportunity for another points finish, Norris feels that no one would have known it was the wrong option at the time.
Norris said: “We made the wrong decision under the safety car and didn’t box when we should have done.
“It wasn’t gambling, but hoping that a few more people would drop off in the end but it didn’t happen.
“In hindsight, the strategy was wrong but it was not something we could have known when we made the decision.
“So I still stand by the team, they did nothing wrong: we just didn’t make the right choice at the end of the day.”