McLaren scored the most points in Silverstone, with 27, last weekend. Still, it was a disappointing outing for the Woking-based squad as they were on course to emerge victorious with both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri having the pace to do so. Analyzing the situation, F1 TV’s Jolyon Palmer pointed out where McLaren messed up to hand others an advantage.
With rain falling, teams needed to bring their drivers in for intermediate tires at the perfect time, something which Red Bull got right with Max Verstappen. Norris, however, had to wait another lap before he changed his compound.
Make it another podium visit, @LandoNorris!
P3 at Silverstone! #BritishGP pic.twitter.com/eyf4ch3xkk
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) July 7, 2024
Even with Norris out for another lap while Verstappen pitted, McLaren refused to bring Piastri in for his stop, and the Aussie was left running on medium tires on a completely wet track. As such, Piastri lost about 25 seconds and was left out of contention for the race win.
Norris, on the other hand, was still in the mix. Alas, McLaren dropped the ball again. After a confusing exchange between Norris and his race-engineer Will Joseph, the latter had soft tires fitted into his MCL38.
It was ultimately this tire choice that killed all hopes for McLaren. Silverstone is a circuit with high tire degradation. And first, Lewis Hamilton overtook the Bristol-born driver, and then a few laps later, Verstappen followed suit.
Both Norris and Piastri know that the British GP was a missed opportunity for McLaren to register its second race win of the season. And neither hid their disappointment in the aftermath.
McLaren drivers let their feelings known after disappointing British GP
Knowing very well that a poor strategy cost them a race win, CEO Zak Brown was upfront with the admission of the team’s mistakes. He admitted that a lack of key decision-making skills allowed Mercedes to steal the win away from them. The only thing left to do was learn from what went wrong.
Meanwhile, Piastri knew during the Grand Prix itself, that putting late would be a race-losing decision.
Lando Norris after Lewis Hamilton broke the all-time F1 wins record in 2020
“It doesn’t mean anything. Lewis is in a car that should win every race and only has to beat one or two other drivers”
Norris now has a rocketship and only achieved 1 lucky win
There are levels pic.twitter.com/P7bmXSlOCW
— ۟ (@tracingpoint) July 8, 2024
“I knew it was the wrong call. instantly,” said Piastri as per Race Fans.
Norris on the other hand, was more frustrated with his team. He insisted that he did not make any errors in Silverstone and that he was fed up with taking the blame for his team’s mistakes.
