Jolyon Palmer tells McLaren what they need to do after Lando Norris radio ‘chaos’

Follow us on Google Discover

Lando Norris was understandably dejected after missing out on taking a popular win in front of the adoring British Grand Prix crowd.

It was the third time in a row that he missed out on a win with one of the quickest cars, having came from fourth on the grid to take the lead for the majority of the race.

The British driver and McLaren made several errors leading up to and during his final pit stop, which enabled Lewis Hamilton to take the lead and win his record ninth race at Silverstone – the most of any British driver.

The pit stop blunder also enabled Max Verstappen to take second from Norris in the closing stages, losing him further points as McLaren attempt to mount a title challenge in the second half of the season.

Verstappen extended his lead in the Drivers’ Championship to Norris by 84 points, compounding yet more disappointment for the British driver. Analysing their last pit stop for his analysis segment on F1 TV, former driver Jolyon Palmer believes a significant factor in the team’s communication with Norris led to him losing out.

McLaren and Lando Norris team radio chaos

Palmer pointed out that the communication over team radio leading up to the final pit stop was very vague between Norris and engineer Will Joseph.

A transcript from the exchange between the pair shows that while Norris was asking questions, Joseph left out crucial pieces of information that would have helped the Briton retain his lead.

Palmer felt the sloppy communication between the pair was ultimately what led to Norris choosing the used set of soft tyres rather than the new medium they had saved.

“It’s utter chaos, they’re in the lead, they’re panicking and rather than focus on what is best for their race, they are trying to wonder what is the best to cover off: either a Mercedes or Red Bull. But only half the information coming to Norris, it’s very difficult in the car to know how far away the nearest threat is,” said Palmer.

“Hamilton is in the mirrors so instinctively you decide to cover him off, but how far back was Verstappen, what is his pace going to be like on the hard tyre? The team has got to be more assertive to Lando when you have so much going on.”

Oscar Piastri makes the correct call during British GP

Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri made the correct call to switch to a new set of medium tyres during his last stint, which turned out to be half a second quicker than those on the soft.

Part of the reason why Norris was slower at the end of the race was because of the degridation of the softs compared to the harder compounds, namely with the front left which both him and Hamilton needed to nurse.

Hamilton said another five laps would likely have seen Verstappen pass him for the lead, as the Dutchman could push on his set of hard tyres without fear of suffering degradation in the final stages.

Team principal Andrea Stella admitted after the race to Sky Sports that too much communication took place between the driver and pit wall for both Norris and Piastri, with the team set to take away any decisions that require critical timing from the drivers in future.