25/07/2024
NEWS STORY
Amidst continuing criticism of his attitude in Hungary, Lando Norris admits that he could have handled the team orders call better.
Even as the race played out, no doubt the screenwriters for Drive to Survive and F1 - the movie - were wondering how they could take advantage of the situation, whilst the Sky team also licked their lips at the prospect of more controversy further down the line.
However, given a week to reflect, Lando Norris admits that his reaction to being told to move aside for his teammate wasn't a good look.
"Could it have been handled slightly differently from both a team side and a personal side? Yes," he told reporters at Spa today. "The things that I could have done differently, the fact that I kind of clouded over Oscar's first race win in Formula 1 is something I've not felt too proud about," he admitted. "The fact we had a one-two and nothing was really spoken about from that side, that's the kind of thing I felt worse about.
"It's such a stupid thing that I didn't, because we're free to race," he continued. "I could have just let him past and still tried to overtake and to race him. It sounds so simple now, but it's not something that went through my head at the time. Such a simple thing like that, you know, I could have done, but I was just in a good rhythm, and things were going well at the time.
"I questioned it at the time, questioned the team a few times. I knew from as soon as they boxed me ahead of him, or before him, that I was going to have to let him go. I was a bit silly and didn't let him go earlier."
Whatever the ethics, the rights and wrongs of the situation, the team's call meant that Norris forfeited 7 points in his bid to battle Verstappen for the title.
"That had nothing to do with last week," insisted Norris. "I shouldn't have led the race. That's the end of it. I shouldn't have been in the lead. Oscar got me off the line, he controlled it well. That was it.
"I shouldn't have led the race, and people shouldn't have then had the perception of 'Ah, the team are not biasing towards Lando'. If Oscar was leading the whole race, there's absolutely zero reason for them to ask him to suddenly let me past."
To avoid a repeat, some - most notably the British media - believe that McLaren should now throw its (drivers' title) efforts completely behind the Briton.
"If you're thinking of it from a championship point of view. I don't know when the point is of like, if I'm 10 points behind, 15 points behind, whatever," said Norris. "At what point then do you go, 'Can you help out a bit more, can you do this or do that'? I don't know when that point is, and that's not my decision.
"I still need to earn it, go out there and drive quicker than everyone," he continued. "I don't know why is now the point that we would have a bias of one over the other. We have never had the bias in the team; it might have looked like it from the outside and that happens a lot now, but we are only halfway through, and we have a hell of a long way to go. Maybe further down the line, but that time is to be decided."