Tim Coronel tells ‘whining’ F1 driver he needs to be more like Lando Norris

Follow us on Google Discover

McLaren driver Lando Norris was critical of his own performance at the British Grand Prix last weekend. His mindset has divided opinion among F1 pundits.

Norris started third but surged into the lead of the race when it started raining. Lewis Hamilton ‘couldn’t believe’ how fast McLaren were in the changeable conditions as both drivers passed the two Mercedes.

The 24-year-old had built up a three-second lead over Hamilton when the track started drying again, but he spurned a chance at victory. Sky Sports F1’s Martin Brundle felt it was ‘unfair’ that McLaren asked Norris to choose his tyre compound.

He says they should have taken charge of the situation and fitted fresh mediums. Norris elected to fit the softs in the hope of covering off Hamilton but it proved to be ill-judged.

Having emerged behind the seven-time world champion, he also lost second to Max Verstappen. Alex Wurz criticised Norris for missing his pit marks and costing himself even more time at a crucial moment.

The Miami GP winner took the blame for McLaren’s disappointment after the race, telling the press that he hasn’t been ‘making the right decisions lately’. But Jenson Button is concerned that Norris could ‘spiral’ if he keeps ‘putting himself down massively’.

Tim Coronel urges Charles Leclerc to ‘look at himself’ like Lando Norris

Speaking on the Racing News 365 podcast, Dutch racing driver Tim Coronel commended Norris’ approach. And he suggested Charles Leclerc could learn from it.

Leclerc failed to score points for the second race in a row at Silverstone. He missed out on Q3 on Saturday and then made a race-defining error by switching onto intermediate tyres too quickly.

He ultimately came home 14th between the RB of Daniel Ricciardo and the Sauber of Valtteri Bottas. Leclerc said after the race (via Race Fans) that he thought it was the right decision to pit early ‘with the message he got’ from the team.

Coronel feels that Leclerc should be more willing to take responsibility. He says he isn’t helping Ferrari escape their current rut.

He said: “What I like about is Lando is that he always says ‘I have to do better, I’m in the wrong here, I’m the one’. He doesn’t point around him very much.

“He constantly keeps a mirror in front of himself that he needs to do better or coordinate better. I think that’s what makes him a very nice driver.

“That’s why I see him still growing. That’s the learning curve, isn’t it, instead of whining and criticising the team. That’s just a bit too easy.

“That’s what I see Leclerc doing at the moment. He just gets frustrated. You see that they are losing their way. That does not help if you have a driver who is only pointing [the finger]. In the end, you also have to look at yourself.”

Martin Brundle issues verdict on ‘difficult’ time for Leclerc and Ferrari

When Leclerc ended the ‘Monaco curse’ by winning on home soil, he was only 31 points behind Verstappen in the championship. Ferrari were just 24 adrift of Red Bull in the constructors’.

In the five races since, including a Sprint weekend in Austria, he’s scored a meagre 12. The gap to Verstappen has ballooned to 105, and Ferrari have slipped 72 back from Red Bull despite Sergio Perez’s woes.

Brundle says it’s been a ‘miserable’ period for Ferrari lately. And he thinks Leclerc is having an ‘especially difficult’ time’ after a run of one points finish in four Grands Prix.

One journalist noted that Leclerc ‘seemed broken’ after the race. Ferrari have had to take upgrades off their car because they haven’t produced the desired results.