Lando Norris claims Saudi Arabian GP Safety Car cost him a ‘heroic’ result

Lando Norris crossed the chequered flag in Saudi Arabia in P8 despite showing promising pace in the first half of the race.

Lando Norris claims Saudi Arabian GP Safety Car cost him a ‘heroic’ result

Lando Norris (via IMAGO)

The Saudi Arabian GP was full of surprises for the McLaren driver Lando Norris. The Briton initially nearly missed out on crashing with Yuki Tsunoda in the pit lane. Following this, the 24-year-old led the race for a few laps following a safety car due to Lance Stroll’s shocking crash at the circuit. This hampered the strategy of the British driver.

Red Bull decided to pit both their drivers early on in the wake of a safety car. Hence, this enabled Lando Norris to gain the lead over the others and occupy the first spot. However, the Briton fell to P4 in the pecking order before pitting after the culmination of the safety car. Subsequently, Norris asserted that the team took a gamble when sticking to this strategy.

We just tried it, we took the gamble
Norris said, as reported by Pitdebrief
YouTube video

Additionally, the 24-year-old mentioned that a Safety Car later on in the race would make the drivers look like ‘heroes’ on the track. Lance Stroll crashed early on and caused a Safety Car and also a change in strategies of multiple teams. However, the strategy that McLaren decided on didn’t pay much advantage to the driver. This was evident from Norris’ P8 finish down the Saudi Arabian GP despite a P6 qualifying. Hence, The Briton asserted how the team could have scored great points but at the same time acknowledged how a failed strategy could’ve cost the team points.

FS Video
A Safety Car or a Virtual Safety Car could have come on late in the race and we would have looked like heroes, but we didn’t. I’m happy, we made a good decision, we tried something, it didn’t pay off today. It could have won us a lot of points and cost us maybe a couple of points at the end of the day.

Lando Norris highlighted tire degradation concerns for McLaren

Apart from this, Norris shared his opinions over the tire degradation that was caused during the race. The Briton explained how he expected more from the soft compounds that were used during the latter half of the race. However, the tires started degrading sooner than expected and hence caused problems to manage them later.

I expected a little bit more from the soft tyres at the end, but they just degraded after a couple of laps.

Lando Norris
Lando Norris (via IMAGO)

Despite the issues faced by the 24-year-old down the race, he fended off well against Lewis Hamilton just behind him. Norris finished one place ahead of the seven-time world champion in the Saudi Arabian GP. Hence, he was satisfied with the results, considering the issues down the race. Regardless, Norris claimed that it was a good effort and brought in good enough points for the team to hold their lead over Mercedes.

Difficult, but I did what I could and I thought it was a good effort,

McLaren has been showcasing great pace and performance alongside the two young drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Woking is currently ahead of Brackley in terms of points and would likely hold the lead if the team follows up with similar performances. Hence, the season will include an exciting battle between the two teams for a better finish in the constructors’ championship.

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