Lando Norris won the sprint race in Brazil thanks to team orders from McLaren. McLaren told Oscar Piastri to let Norris take the lead, but Norris mentioned it wasn’t as simple as it seemed.
During the race, Norris sounded frustrated on the radio. Piastri blocked him at turn one and stayed ahead for most of the race. After a few laps, Norris felt like something was off. “I’m not sure what I’m doing here, mate. I thought we spoke about this,” he said to Will Joseph, his race engineer. Joseph just told him to keep going.
In a press conference after the race, someone asked Norris if an earlier switch would have helped. He replied, “I don’t know. I can’t…how am I meant to know?”
How Did McLaren Plan Their Strategy?
Norris explained they discussed many scenarios before the race. It was tricky to do things earlier because other cars were close behind them. “We want both cars up there,” he said, adding that they did their best with what they had.
McLaren planned to swap positions on the last lap, but yellow flags came out when Nico Hulkenberg stopped on track, almost messing up their plan. “The safety car put it under a little bit of threat and we were lucky,” said Norris. He noted that risks are always present in races and that executing plans isn’t easy.
Fans might think McLaren’s strategy was risky yet exciting!
In the end, McLaren managed everything well despite challenges. What do you think about team orders in racing?
