Lando Norris has now warned McLaren of an ‘important’ change the F1 team must make to beat Max Verstappen and Red Bull after a costly error at the Canadian GP.
Montreal witnessed the closest finish from the first nine rounds in 2024 with the top four all separated by less than five seconds last time out. Verstappen came home at the front of the train for his sixth win of the season after pipping Norris, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.
But Norris feels McLaren spurned his chance to fight for the victory at the Canadian GP. The 24-year-old fought back to end the race 3.869s off Verstappen and hold off Mercedes duo, Russell and Hamilton. Papaya teammate Oscar Piastri came home fifth, 10.199s off the lead.
Lando Norris feels McLaren cost him the Canadian GP with the safety car
An ultimately wrong decision to not pre-empt a safety car after Logan Sargeant crashed his Williams ensured Norris did not stop for new tyres when Verstappen and Russell made their first visits to the pits. The Briton would even catch the safety car to fall behind his two rivals.
McLaren and Norris left themselves with no time to react to the inevitable intervention from the safety car, which came out as the Bristol-born pilot neared pit entry. But Verstappen and Russell running behind Norris at the time meant Red Bull and Mercedes could both respond.
Lando Norris urges McLaren to improve if they are to beat Max Verstappen
Norris believes it was that moment where McLaren lost him the chance to fight for the win, as well. So, he has urged the Woking natives to improve as they cannot make those mistakes and pip Verstappen, especially with Mercedes also in contention after Russell’s bid for glory.
“If you think of the safety car, from our side, we should have boxed,” Norris said, via quotes by RacingNews365. “We lost the lead and I lost an opportunity to fight for the win.
“George had the quickest car [and] drove extremely well all weekend from an outright pace point of view. And if he hadn’t made a couple of mistakes – which all drivers do, including Max – probably would have had a chance of winning the race.
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“So, from that perspective, Max shouldn’t have won. Yet he still won the race, which just shows that even when he hasn’t had the best car and things like that, he still shows what he’s capable of doing. But we’ve always known it.
“It’s not simply, ‘We have just got a better car’, and then you just crack on and forget about everything else.
“Now, it’s even more important to get the strategy right, to get the smaller things correct. Because at the end of the day, when the cars are so similar on pace, those things start to make a big difference.”
George Russell made two mistakes to scupper his Canadian GP hopes
Russell showed Mercedes were a force to be reckoned with at the Canadian GP by securing pole position. He also ran well with Verstappen and Norris throughout the race. But the 26-year-old cost himself twice with small errors that helped Verstappen go on and take the win.
Verstappen jumped Russell on Lap 21 of the 70 after the King’s Lynn native had to bail out of a move into the final chicane on Norris. Russell also made contact with Piastri on L63, which briefly let Hamilton sneak into P3. The Mercedes teammates traded positions again on L68.
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