Lando Norris telemetry data reveals critical Miami GP strategy error

Despite Kimi Antonelli’s third consecutive victory, it seems that Mercedes’ early season dominance is nearing its end.

McLaren was extremely fast in Miami, and had it not been for a strategic error in the main race, Lando Norris would have been in a very good position to take his first win of the year. We explore how actually Norris lost the race in just a single lap through the help of telemetry data.

Lando Norris loses Miami lead to Kimi Antonelli undercut

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Despite a poorer qualifying session, which was the result of a technical error in the ERS deployment strategy, we could have guessed that if it stayed dry, McLaren would be highly dangerous in the main race.

During the Sprint race, they had the fastest pace on the grid – 0.280 seconds faster than Mercedes and nearly half a second a lap faster than Ferrari. With pace like that, even starting from P4, you are still a very major contender for the win.

This was exactly what Norris managed to demonstrate during the first part of the race in Miami. Aided by a poor start from Antonelli (another one in a series) and a mistake by Max Verstappen, the Briton quickly found himself in the top three. On Lap 6 he overtook Antonelli, and on Lap 13 he passed Charles Leclerc, patiently climbing his way into the lead.

The track position was there, the pace was brilliant, he was in clean air, and all the conditions were met for a victory – all except for the strategy.

At this point in the race, the threat of rain and its timing was the main topic of conversation between drivers and engineers. It seemed that everyone wanted to extend their first stint on the medium tyres to somehow wait and see if the rain would be heavy or not.

In this waiting game, the Mercedes team made the first move and brought Kimi in for a stop on Lap 27. His deficit to the leading Norris at that moment was 1.8 seconds.

This was a difficult decision because the Italian came out on track right behind Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, who were locked in a battle. Kimi spent his first lap on the hard tyres in dirty air, almost certainly losing several tenths of a second behind Hamilton.

Despite that, he managed to make up one full second on Norris in the second sector alone, while being about another half a second faster in the third sector. Combined with a slightly slower pit stop for Norris (2.8 seconds), who came in on the very next lap, it was enough for both drivers to find themselves wheel-to-wheel on the pit exit.

However, Antonelli now had the better momentum and tyres that were already up to temperature, making the overtake on the Briton quite easy. A perfectly executed undercut by the Mercedes team put Antonelli back into the lead.

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Although Norris remained within a two-second deficit almost until the end of the race, there was no real opportunity to strike. In fact, Antonelli even complained about downshifting issues during this part of the race, but this did not disrupt him enough.

During the second stint on the hard tyres, Norris was only 0.079 seconds per lap slower than the Mercedes driver. This is proof that McLaren’s extensive list of upgrades are actually working and that they have taken a major step forward in performance.

With pace like this, we can safely say that this one-lap delay cost them the victory in Miami.

Regardless of the outcome, the Papaya team can certainly leave this race weekend happy. A double podium and proof that they can fight for the win is a massive motivation for both the drivers and the team, as well as a reminder to us spectators that exciting races and battles are still ahead of us.

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