The shine on a McLaren resurgence at Albert Park was knocked off somewhat on Sunday with questions surrounding a key strategy call that impacted Lando Norris.
Norris finished the Australian Grand Prix in third despite the team effectively allowing teammate Oscar Piastri to undercut him earlier in the race.
Piastri pitted on Lap 10 in response to a stop from Mercedes’ George Russell, while Norris was kept out for five more laps, eventually rejoining the track behind Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
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Once Norris caught Piastri on fresher tyres, the Australian was ordered by his team to give the position to the Briton, who then began closing in on Leclerc for second.
Ultimately, he ran out of laps and finished less than three seconds adrift.
Asked in the TV pen if he felt he would have finished second had McLaren pit him, not Piastri, first, Norris nodded.
He added: “It’s difficult to know, but I’d say yes.
“We were quicker than Charles but we were undercut. That was a strategic thing.
“I think when you look at it, and you’re realistic with one another, I think as a team, as much as we’ll be happy with P3, you also think, ‘was P2 possible?’ And I think it was today.”
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Sky Sports analyst Karun Chandhok agreed with Norris, saying that McLaren had plenty of scope to put Norris first without impacting Piastri’s race.
“I think they made a bit of a mistake here,” Chandhok said. “I’m glad to hear Lando sort of agrees.
“In hindsight, if you say they pitted Lando on Lap 10 instead of Oscar – Oscar was still four seconds ahead of George and could’ve pitted on Lap 11 and stayed ahead.
“They could’ve won on both counts there.”
Team boss Andrea Stella was asked for an explanation after the race, and defended the decision.
“It’s possible (he could’ve finished P2). It was very early with a high degree of uncertainty as to the behaviour of the hard tyres. In fact, we saw some quick cars that didn’t look quick at all…
“So we actually went for this strategy with trying to pass Leclerc with Oscar, but Leclerc decided it was a good idea as well and went at the same time.”
Source Agencies
