07/09/2024
NEWS STORY
Admitting that he was "too cautious" at the start of the Italian Grand Prix, Lando Norris admits unease with teammate's move at the second chicane.
According to "papaya rules" whichever McLaren driver was behind on entry to the first corner was to spread out in order to protect his teammate, which Oscar Piastri duly did.
However, benefitting from the slipstream and a somewhat cautious approach to the second chicane, the Australian made a surprise move on the Briton, the pair entering the chicane side-by-side until Norris lost grip and Piastri edged ahead.
Compounding Norris' agony was the fact that as he struggled to emerge from the second chicane, Charles Leclerc was also able to slip by.
While his start was good - certainly compared to last week in Zandvoort - it maintained a record that Norris will be keen to shake off as soon as possible, in that despite starting from pole 5 times he has yet to be leading the race at the end of the first lap.
Asked, at race end, what he might have done differently, he admitted: "Just brake a bit later... simple as that.
"Sometimes it's easier said than done," he continued. "Oscar obviously braked on the limit and gave me space. That was just about enough. I did my best to avoid anything else happening at the time. But at the same time if I brake two meters later, you don't know and you can't predict. But two metres later it could easily have been a crash.
"It's a tough one," he sighed. "Easiest thing is just to brake way later and force him off and kind of treat it like no one else. But yeah, I don't know. I obviously took it easy. I saw there was a massive gap behind. So maybe I was just a bit too much on the cautious side and paid the price."
Asked if he was surprised by his teammate's move, he admitted: "A little bit. Obviously I would have just braked a bit later if I'd needed to.
"I feel like he got way too close for comfort," he added, "we both easily could have been out in that corner if I'd braked one metre later. Obviously if I could rewind I would do stuff slightly differently but, it is what it is, Oscar drove a good race and so did Charles, so...
"It was pretty disappointing," he said of the race, "which is obvious from the outside even. I mean, Charles drove a great race, honestly. It's hard to know if we could have done what he did today, but they deserved it. And, yeah, both Oscar and Charles drove a good race.
"So, yeah, disappointing starting from pole and only third, especially when I think the pace is very strong. So, a shame, but that's the way it is."
At a time sections of the media are almost demanding that McLaren order Piastri to support Norris' title bid, when asked if he needed the Australian's support the Briton replied: "He helps me. But I'm not here just to beg for someone to let me pass. That's not why I'm here. I'm here to race. He drove a better race than me, so I finished third and that's where I deserve to finish."
While McLaren had given its drivers permission to race, team boss Andrea Stella subsequently admitted that the team would look into whether Piastri had flouted its own 'papaya rules' in terms of the move.
"We will have to review together with the drivers, with the videos," said the Italian. "Understand their point of view and then we will assess together whether they were fully compliant or not.
"We will take the learning, if there is any learning they need to take, and then we will apply the papaya rules such that they allow us to pursue in the best possible manner both the constructors' championship and the drivers' championship.
"We have to now be in the condition to acknowledge that not only the constructors' championship is possible but even from the driver's point of view, with the performance that we have in the car and some of the struggle we see with Red Bull, it is definitely possible."
Despite getting the better of his teammate however, Piastri was clearly very disappointed to have lost out to Leclerc.
"It hurts, I'm not going to lie, it hurts a lot," he said at race end. "We did a lot of things right today. There was a lot of question marks on the strategy going into the race. From the position we were in with the tyres looking like they did, doing a one-stop seemed like a very risky call. It the end, it was right."
Asked if a one-stop would have been the right way to go, he was in no doubt.
"In hindsight, yes," he replied. "Everyone's a legend on Monday after the race, or after the chequered flag. Today, unfortunately, we go it a bit wrong with myself being a big part of that.
"We had everything to lose from being in the lead of the race; Charles could try something a bit different... he was going to finish third either way.
"The mediums were getting destroyed and even the hards on the Red Bull at the start looked pretty dead. My front-left was pretty heavily grained. We didn't expect it to clear back up again, which it did."
Of course, as veteran Lewis Hamilton observed, it was perhaps that first lap move that ultimately cost McLaren, for in hunting down his teammate Norris put undue pressure on his tyres, likewise Piastri in his attempt to hold off the charging Briton.