Despite having many opportunities to win races in 2024, Lando Norris has stood on the top step of the podium just once. The Briton has made several mistakes, which have hampered his results but McLaren too, has contributed with its strategic blunders. Bernie Collins, in a recent interview, reveals how McLaren can reduce these errors to help Norris add more wins to his column.
“There are too many people involved in this committee of decision-making, and that slows down the decision,” Collins said to Autosport. I think that is part of the issue with McLaren. When you’re asking a driver continuously what tire he wants, it slows down the decision-making process naturally“.
Every message as McLaren desperately pleaded with Lando Norris to obey team orders:
Lap 47:
Tom Stallard, race engineer to Oscar Piastri (TS): “OK Oscar, Lando has pitted to cover Hamilton to make sure he covers Hamilton. We’ll manage that situation, best pace from you now.… pic.twitter.com/LBcyBwV9WY
— This is Formula 1 (@ThisIsFormu1a1) July 21, 2024
Collins believes that it should be the team’s strategists’ decision to decide what tire they want to choose for their drivers. The only thing that teams should consult a driver on, is when they want to pit.
When she was a strategist at Aston Martin, Collins had more freedom to make decisions. As such, she ended up making better choices, promptly.
However, when it comes to McLaren, the team has an inefficient way of making decisions, said Collis.
Collins gives an example of how McLaren cost Norris a win
In another interview, Collins spoke about how McLaren’s strategic errors in Canada earlier this year cost Norris an opportunity to win his second-ever F1 race.
On lap 25, Logan Sargeant crashed, which presented Norris with the perfect opportunity to pit under safety car conditions. “Norris was 3.5 seconds from the SC Line 1 when the Safety Car was deployed, Collins said.
The Bristol-born driver had ample time to pit and come out ahead of Max Verstappen. However, McLaren failed to communicate this to him before it was too late.
“Had Norris been told to box for intermediates if a Safety Car was deployed, then the 3.5 seconds between the Safety Car deployment and reaching the SC Line 1 would have been sufficient to make it into the pit lane,” explained Collins.
Since Norris did not take this opportunity, Collins insisted that neither he nor McLaren could blame luck for their failure to win.
