A frustrated Lando Norris said his McLaren team “thrown away” victory after poor decisions cost him the lead in Sunday’s British Grand Prix.
Seven days after he was forced to retire following a collision with Red Bull’s series leader and three-time champion Max Verstappen at the Austrian Grand Prix, the 24-year-old Briton said he was “tired” of making excuses.
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Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton won the race at Silverstone on Sunday for Mercedes, ahead of Verstappen and Norris.
The result extended the Dutchman’s lead in the drivers’ title race to 84 points over Norris.
Norris was asked whether McLaren had ruined their chances through poor decision-making, particularly a delayed switch to soft tyres, rather than mediums, for the final sprint to the flag.
“I’ve been hearing that a lot lately,” Norris said.
“I hate to say it again, but so many things went right and we threw it away at the last stop. So a lap late, but I also think that even if I had boxed in the perfect lap, our decision to go on the soft tires was the wrong one.
“I think Lewis would have still won anyway, but two calls from our side cost us everything today. So for me it’s quite disappointing, especially here at Silverstone. I’m just tired of making excuses.
“We weren’t fast enough here today and when it was dry the Mercedes was a lot faster, even though we were better in the slippery conditions.
“But there are still a lot of positives, so we have to keep working as a team, even when we know we’ve thrown away something that should have been ours.”
McLaren’s decision to keep Norris on soft tires even surprised Hamilton.
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Hamilton spoke in the cooldown area after the race and asked Norris about McLaren’s strategy.
“Do you have soft too?” Hamilton asked.
Hamilton added: “But you had two new mediums?”
Norris replied: “I know.”
Hamilton said: “Yes, you could have gone to the medium. A new medium would probably have been faster.”
Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri finished fourth, also frustrated with the way his race unfolded after being sidelined for one lap too long and falling from race leader to sixth, a setback from which he was unable to recover.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez also complained of poor strategy after their teams switched them to intermediate tires in anticipation of a wet track, but they lost places and could not recover.
Leclerc, who finished 14th, described his race as “worse than a nightmare”.
Carlos Sainz, who leaves Ferrari this year to make way for the incoming Hamilton, finished fifth with solid, well-measured drives.
Perez was under pressure to keep his seat and said his race had been “a total disaster” after finishing 17th.
