While looking back at the British Grand Prix, F1 pundit Martin Brundle blamed McLaren for letting down their drivers at Silverstone. He believes that the Woking-based team should have won the race because they clearly had the fastest car throughout the weekend.
He also claimed that Max Verstappen, who had only the fifth-fastest car on Sunday, must have been pleased with a second-place finish that gave him more cushion in the championship. Brundle explained how not having Sergio Perez in the mix allowed Red Bull to fully focus on Verstappen’s race which helped the Dutchman recover lost ground quickly.
“I think McLaren should have won the race yesterday actually. They’ve spoiled the party because they had it in their hands. They had the speed…” Brundle noted during the Sky Sports F1 podcast.
Brundle then added, “At the moment, Red Bull is struggling a little bit but they’ve got a good combination with Max at the wheel. And Mercedes are saying we’ve got more to come, we got more and more upgrades to come“.
The 65-year-old called out McLaren on their blunders with the strategy calls as these mistakes helped Lewis Hamilton win the race once pole-sitter George Russell retired his car due to water pump issues. However, more than Hamilton, it was Verstappen who benefitted from McLaren’s mistakes.
Hamilton roasted Lando Norris in the cooldown room at Silverstone
McLaren made two disastrous strategy calls at Silverstone. First, they didn’t double-stack Oscar Piastri behind Norris as Mercedes did with its drivers. This completely destroyed Piastri’s race who lost more than 20 seconds on his first in-lap.
Then, towards the end of the race, Norris was left on the intermediate tires one lap too many. This allowed Hamilton to come out ahead of his fellow Brit on soft tires.
Moreover, the choice of soft tires for Norris’ last stint was also a mistake as they had a fresh set of mediums available, unlike Mercedes. This resulted in the 24-year-old degrading his tires much faster than Verstappen who was close behind on hard tires and eventually overtook him for P2.
In the cooldown room, Hamilton roasted Norris about McLaren’s tire choice. “You on soft as well,” asked Hamilton. “But you had two new mediums”, to which a dejected Norris said, “I know“.
Britain – u can blame the team, but they made it very clear they have the medium and Ham doesn’t. Norris left it up to them when they asked, they chose the soft. He could’ve easily insisted on the medium… even Hamilton said in the cooldown room he thought Lando would go Medium
— GodSpeed (@GodSpeedF1) July 8, 2024
Verstappen is now 84 points clear of Norris in the Drivers’ Championship. However, the gap could have easily been smaller as Norris does seem to have the quickest car at the moment. It is either his own or McLaren’s mistakes that have cost him.
