Lando Norris clears up claim over McLaren US GP strategy disagreement

Lando Norris has poured cold water on the suggestion that there was a disagreement between him and his McLaren team over his strategy in the United States GP.

Despite making up three spots in the race, Norris had to settle for fifth place at the Circuit of the Americas, with McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri coming home seventh.

Lando Norris clears up irritated radio exchange in US GP

Norris held the upper hand at McLaren throughout the weekend, but he was made to rue a track limits violation on his last qualifying run that dropped him behind Piastri.

Although Piastri remained ahead in the opening exchanges, McLaren acted on Norris’ admission that he was being held up and ordered the Australian to let his teammate through on the seventh lap, a choice that Norris described as “the obvious thing to do”.

Norris moved up into second place when Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc came into the pits a second time, with McLaren opting to leave both cars out on a one-stop strategy.

But while he put up a valiant resistance on ageing rubber, Norris was unable to keep Verstappen and Leclerc behind, surrendering both places within the same lap, while Lewis Hamilton, also on a two-stop in the second Ferrari, got past the McLaren too.

“I was just on way too old tyres,” Norris told PlanetF1.com and other accredited media. “He (Verstappen) had already done two pit stops.

“I was still surprised. Like the pace was still very good at that point on the hard tyre, comparing to them.

“So I was quite surprised at that part of the race we could be as strong as we were, but inevitably, as soon as he had Overtake [Mode], and I had to use boost to defend, he was going to come past quite easily. So he did that, and as soon as I then have traffic on old tyres, then it’s kind of game over, and it’s easy for everyone else.

“So clean air was saving me a lot, and obviously I managed to keep him behind for a few laps. But just the degradation was starting to become too much on a hard tyre.

“So it was good fun. I felt like it was a nice battle. In the end, [it] was just impossible to keep them behind, especially with how quick Charles was. He was very, very quick. Obviously, he finished P2. So yeah, I had no chance, but we gave it a good shot.”

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Having been told he was not going to pit again even once his podium hopes had been extinguished, Norris instructed his race engineer Will Joseph not to communicate with him again over the closing laps, leading the reigning champion to be asked post-race whether his apparent ire was related to the calls made on the McLaren pit wall.

“No, not at all,” he retorted. “No, I was very happy with the team. We did a good job today.

“They were just debating whether to box onto different tyres or not. I was hoping to have a better chance with the hard tyre, but the hard tyre just degraded.

“So it was more: did we want to box and be safe and box onto another set of tyres, or did we want to stay out? And we just chose to stay out.

“No, no disagreements. I think they did a very good job with the strategy.”

Norris, who has now gone four successive races without a podium, admitted he was content with his drive, believing that he extracted the maximum from the MCL40.

“Yeah, we tried,” he acknowledged. “I mean, we were not there on pace or anything, so we had to give it a shot, and if there was any VSC [virtual safety car] or a safety car, we were right in contention for a good podium, even a P2 for a lot of it.

“So we were hoping, I was praying [for a safety car]. It never came, but I feel like it was a good race today. I feel like the pace was strong. I feel like I got everything out of it, so I have to be happy. Even though P5 doesn’t sound amazing, There’s not much more we can do.”

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