“There was nothing I could do,” Lando Norris blames McLaren for his terrible start at the Italian GP


“There was nothing I could do,” Lando Norris blames McLaren for his terrible start at the Italian GP

Lando Norris

McLaren F1 driver Lando Norris was adamant after qualifying that the team and fans shouldn’t have high expectations from the drivers to match the results from the last time that they raced at the temple of speed. Due to multiple drivers ahead of the McLaren duo facing grid penalties which included Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton, Norris and Ricciardo had the perfect chance to get in a good result for the race.

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Italy was good for McLaren last year when they managed to score a 1-2 finish with Daniel Ricciardo winning the race and Lando Norris joining him on the second step of the podium. It was all fun and joy last year compared to the difficult situation that they were in this year. With Ricciardo and the team parting ways at the end of this year meanwhile the
car has had a downfall when it comes to performance. After realising that he will be starting p3 and his teammate will be p4 for the main race, Norris wasn’t convinced that the team will be able to put in a performance like last year.

When it came to the start itself, Norris seemed to have stalled on track while he let some cars pass and others just got stuck behind him. Finally, he got the car running and charged ahead as he tried to defend himself from the drivers behind. Lando Norris would have had a much better start had he not encountered a problem which arose due to McLaren.
He further discussed it with the media.

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“It’s never happened before – and it probably won’t happen again,” Lando Norris on the issue that cost him the start

McLaren's Double-Stack
The McLaren MCL36 during the double-stack. Lando Norris feels that the car is not good enough.

He went on to explain what had actually happened. “There was nothing I could do,” he assures. Because Lando was the victim of a wrong setting on the car at the start. He knew that it was wrong.

However, you should not change this immediately before the start is what Lando was instructed to do. “So I couldn’t have done anything. They told me, so I expected it to be bad,” reveals the McLaren driver.

“It’s never happened before – and it probably won’t happen again,” he continued.

Lando Norris could have gotten a great result upwards of P5 had that issue not occurred and ruined his chances. Multiple cars passing him at the start meant he had to gain back all those places which were hard as Monza can sometimes turn into a DRS train track making overtaking hard. With only a few races remaining, the Brit will be adamant to bring a good result home for the team rather than p7.

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