McLaren has shown itself as a true frontrunner team this year. They have a great car, two insanely talented drivers, and all the pieces seem to be there to really challenge for the win in the constructors’ championship. Well, all the pieces except one…
The strategy department at McLaren was in absolute shambles this weekend. When the rain came out, they waited too long with bringing Piastri in for intermediate tyres. The reasoning was that Piastri and Norris were too close together on track and a double stack pitstop would cost them too much time. That would be a fair reasoning, were it not for the fact that their actual approach cost them way more time. When Norris went in, he was right in front of Piastri. When Piastri went in a lap later, he had been struggling so much on the wet track that Norris had already caught up to him again and was right behind him. To put that into numbers: double stacking would have probably delayed Piastri by about five to ten seconds. This approach delayed Piastri by 30 seconds. Before this call, Piastri was a contender for the win. After it, he had to settle for fourth at best.
But that wasn’t all. When the track dried up, McLaren decided to try the same approach with Norris. They waited a lap too long to bring him in, which allowed Hamilton to overtake him and Verstappen to close the gap. But the worst offense in that was that they didn’t tell Norris what to do, they asked him. They asked Norris if he was okay with coming in, then they asked him what compound he wanted. They even asked him whether he wanted softs or mediums. After a lengthy conversation, the team settled on softs, which proved to be the wrong call because he now had to manage tyres until the end of the race while Verstappen on a harder compound could just breeze on by.
McLaren got this wrong in the past
It reminded me immediately of the infamous Russian Grand Prix of 2021. I’m willing to bet most of you remember that: in a season where Verstappen and Hamilton were fighting tooth and nail for the title, McLaren noisily put their car ahead of both of them. Norris was on track to win the race in Sochi, until the rain started pouring down. Instead of calling him in for intermediate tyres, they left the choice up to Norris. And what happened next was one of the most tragic moments in recent F1 history. Norris decided to stay out on slick tyres, the track got wetter by the second, and less than a lap later Norris slid off the track and Hamilton took the lead of the race.
And that wasn’t the only time. There have been multiple instances, even this season, where McLaren seems almost afraid to make a decisive call themselves. They instead choose to ask Norris what he wants and what he thinks is best. And that’s strange, because Norris doesn’t have a complete race overview in front of him, and he is also barreling ahead in a car going 300 kilometers an hour.
McLaren boss Zak Brown also acknowledged the team's mistakes.
This isn’t how you work with Norris
I get the idea of letting your driver make these kinds of calls, I really do. Drivers often know how the car feels and what the track is like, so their judgment is incredibly valuable. And we have seen from people like Hamilton, Alonso and Sainz that they are very much able to make strategy calls while driving.
But the thing is: I don’t think Norris is one of those drivers. Norris is insanely quick and a great battler on track, but he’s not very tactical. And as a team, you need to be able to anticipate that.
McLaren needs to tell their driver: “You need to come in right now, we’re putting you on the medium tyre, and push hard until the end.” They can’t afford to have it be a debate or a discussion. They need to be stern and decisive. If Norris really disagrees, then he can discuss with the team. But that needs to be the second option. The first option has to be that the team tells the driver what to do, because the team has all the data that the driver doesn’t.
Especially in situations like we saw in Silverstone. The situation on track was fluctuating, all the drivers were on different compounds. McLaren was able to see what the lap times were, which tyres could make it to the end, which tyres had to be saved, which ones worked best with the track conditions. They could see what compound Verstappen was on, what Hamilton was on, and what Piastri was doing. Norris can’t see that, but McLaren can. Hell, that’s why they have a chief strategist!
Maybe it’s time they start using that person.