Lando Norris hailed a “decisive” McLaren strategy en route to victory in the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix after losing “guaranteed” wins last year.
Norris led from pole on intermediate tyres, keeping Max Verstappen and McLaren team-mate at bay as the Albert Park circuit dried and transitioned to slicks.
The call for switching to slicks came in not long after Fernando Alonso’s Lap 34 crash triggered a second Safety Car period, but as Norris toured the circuit under caution, the threat of rain loomed.
READ MORE – Lando Norris survives late drama to win F1 Australian GP
Cue a constant flow of communication between Norris and his race engineer regarding when and if to switch back to Intermediate tyres in the event of rain, which eventually wreaked havoc on Lap 44.
Both Norris and Piastri went off at Turn 12, with Norris surviving to head into the pits and switch back to Intermediates, a call that came late, but was effective as Norris was reinstated to a lead he wouldn’t yield once those who tried to brave the wet weather relented and headed down pit-lane.
Norris acknowledged that being decisive on strategy was something McLaren worked hard on over the winter, citing missed opportunities in 2024.
“When you have got the weather changing and the track conditions changing, knowing when to make the correct decision to change onto a slick tyre and stay out on the inter-tyre, and then even more so when I have Max behind me and Oscar behind me, it’s stressful,” Norris said post-race.
“But that’s what makes it rewarding and it makes it such a nice win. But yeah, difficult, a lot of tough moments. I guess that’s what makes it sweeter.
“We worked a lot over the winter to prepare for a race like this because it’s where we threw away a lot of opportunities last season. It was Canada, Silverstone, where we were not the best at preparing and knowing how decisive we had to be.
“Today we were very, very decisive, calling to box five metres before I boxed. But it was the right call in the end and that won us the race. So stressful but rewarding.”
‘I could have left my radio open all race’ – Norris
Norris was keen to stress the flow of communication between himself and Race Engineer Will Joseph in those crucial moments of the Australian GP.
The McLaren ace was keen to point out the hard work from the piit wall and the team members working behind the scenes back in Woking for ensuring that Australia wasn’t a lost win like Canada or Silverstone last year, the latter he believed included a “shocking” error in judgement.
“We lost out on a few races last year,” he said.
“I think probably Silverstone was probably a guaranteed win. We were just… I don’t know what call we made, but it was a shocking one. We accepted that.
“I think Canada was not a guaranteed win, I don’t think, George [Russell] and Mercedes were very quick there, and Max was quick there.
“We didn’t nail the strategy, but we knew we had to improve in certain areas.”
The improvements made, Norris claimed, were to make McLaren “snappier” amid calling strategy.
“There’s been a lot of work just on trying to make sure we’re snappier, we’re better with our communication,” he said, but he did argue that on Sunday “To be honest, today I wouldn’t say we’re snappy.”
Instead, it was consistent flow of chatter between Norris and Joseph that contributed to success.
READ MORE – F1 2025 Australian Grand Prix – Race Results
“I felt like I was having a story time with Will on the radio,” Norris quipped.
“We were talking so much every lap. I might as well have just left my radio open for the whole race.
“It’s just a difficult situation to be in. First, and not knowing what to do with tyres, you kind of just know someone’s going to get it right behind you because they’re just going to gamble something and it’ll work out for them.
“I didn’t want to lose out to someone in the middle of the pack who would gamble and somehow win the race. I was just making sure we were prepared. I was doing my part of making sure the guys on the pit wall here and everyone back in Mission Control in MTC were aware of what was going on, making sure we were on top of it, and making sure we were ready to make the right call.
“That right call was made literally half a second before I boxed. I was still trying to save the car and make sure I didn’t shunt.
“It turned out to be the right decision.
“It was more just relaying information and making sure we’re not overdoing it. It’s a good amount of information and I’m just giving them my feelings.”
Norris credits strategy team with victory
After getting the right call on Sunday, Norris credited his strategy team with propelling him to victory in Melbourne.
“A little bit of drizzle seemed to make quite a big difference for us today,” he said.
“It did for me on the hard tyres. I think that’s what allowed us to make that call to box as quickly as we did.
“There’s a lot more behind the scenes that even I don’t know. A lot of it is the strategy team doing their work.
“I owe the strategy team a lot of credits for today because they’ve put in a lot of time and effort over the winter to build up and improve on such things even more.
“It’s not just about driving a car quickly on a day like today, but a big part of it is also that. I owe a lot to Will and the strategy team today.”
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