McLaren has insisted the mistakes which derailed Lando Norris‘ race in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix derived from the team’s Formula 1 car being “unpredictable” to drive.
Norris lined up on pole position in Brazil, but multiple setbacks saw him slump to sixth place as his title rival Max Verstappen climbed from 17th place to win the race.
The Briton’s race began to unravel when he lost out to George Russell at the start, while both drivers were made to rue pitting on Lap 29 prior to a red flag being called.
Having surrendered places to Verstappen and the two Alpines, Norris ventured wide on the restart at Turn 4 and gave up the position that he had recouped on Russell.
Norris’ adventures wouldn’t be over there, though, as the next resumption also witnessed him get caught out at Turn 1, allowing Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to move past.
However, McLaren boss Andrea Stella has argued the team’s MCL38 car boasting challenging behaviour in the damp conditions contributed to the errors Norris made.
“If I look at Lando himself, the main things to review are to do with his going off-track, which cost us positions,” Stella told media including Motorsport Week.
“We did struggle with both drivers.
“Including qualifying – in Q3 Oscar [Piastri] didn’t score a very strong lap because he locked his last two attempts in Turn 1 – we did struggle with locking the tyres.
“So while we talk about drivers, I think we as a team have to acknowledge that we didn’t give the drivers easy material today to handle in these difficult conditions.
“So I’m sure the drivers will say ‘I could have done better here or there’.
“But also we as a team have to acknowledge that our car in these conditions was difficult, tricky, and sometimes just unpredictable.
“At the moment we take the positives from a championship points point of view, and definitely we take also several situations in which we could have done better.
“We have to look for instance at the start – did we start as good as we could? Did we have maybe too much wheelspin?
“Something to be seen, but like always we will review in a very constructive way, and while you focus on the opportunities I would also like
“The positives of having finished the race, having finished with good points, we increase our gap to the runner-up in the Constructors’ Championship.”
McLaren to review persistent lock-ups
Stella revealed McLaren intends to review the lock-ups that impacted both Norris and Piastri, but his initial feeling is that it is down to the car rather than the drivers.
“That will definitely be something that we are looking into,” he explained regarding the MCL38’s front locking. “It seems to appear in some conditions.
“I can’t really comment – I will give away some IP – but it’s a little unpredictable and, for drivers, it’s also difficult to make adaptations from one lap to the other.
“It comes just unpredictably and I would say this is a technical opportunity for the team rather than something that the drivers need to look into themselves.”
McLaren extends points lead
And although Norris’ various mishaps have all but banished his slim title prospects, Stella was pleased that his two drivers reached the end without incurring damage.
With Ferrari enduring an underwhelming outing as Carlos Sainz crashed out, Norris in sixth and Piastri in eighth has seen it extend its championship lead to 38 points.
“First of all, I judge it with the fact that the message to both drivers was ‘Let’s finish the race’,” Stella added.
“We need to finish the race, because in races like this it’s easy to have a problem which actually takes you out of the race and is a DNF and is zero points.
“Considering what we are fighting for at the moment, this is what we wanted to avoid, and I want to praise the fact that both drivers achieved this objective.”
READ MORE – Lando Norris denies errors cost him Brazil F1 win versus ‘way faster’ Red Bull
