What McLaren did to Lando Norris at Silverstone that Martin Brundle thought was ‘unfair’

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Lando Norris and McLaren have been competing for wins on a consistent basis for around two months now. But they still only have one victory to their name.

Norris broke his Formula 1 duck at the Miami Grand Prix and he finished just 0.7 seconds adrift of Max Verstappen as he tried to repeat it at Imola. In Canada, he was controlling the race before he and his team missed a split-second chance to pit under the safety car, dropping him to third.

The Englishman then took his first pole of the season, and just the second of his Formula 1 career, at the Spanish GP. But a poor start saw him drop to third, and while he seemed to have the fastest race car on the day, he came up short against Verstappen.

The reigning world champion appeared to be cruising to victory in Austria the following week before a botched pit stop brought Norris into play. They engaged in a battle lasting several laps before making contact that took the McLaren out of the race.

And most recently, at Silverstone, they could only manage third despite leading the race by more than three seconds before the final pit-stop phase. Only Verstappen (nine) has scored more podiums than Norris (seven) this year, but he’s no longer satisfied with second or third.

Indeed, the gap between the two drivers in the standings has now grown to 84 points. With better execution from Norris and McLaren, there could be a genuine battle for the title by this point.

Martin Brundle surprised McLaren asked Lando Norris about tyre choice

The British GP started in dry conditions, with Norris third behind the two Mercedes. He lost a position to Verstappen on lap one but recovered it during the first stint.

When the rain arrived, the 24-year-old powered past both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton to take control of the race. However, as the track dried again later on, there was hesitation over the correct tyre choice.

Verstappen had fitted hard tyres, while Hamilton had gone for softs. Norris hoped to cover off the latter by mirroring his strategy, but he failed to hit his marks in the pit box and he lost a couple of seconds.

This meant that his compatriot emerged ahead, and he eventually lost a place to the Red Bull behind. Martin Brundle, who’s been speaking on the Sky Sports F1 podcast, feels McLaren should have taken control of the situation and informed Norris they were bolting on fresh mediums.

He said: “I think it was slightly unfair, or surprising, for them to ask Lando. I think it’s a measure of where they’re at. 

“I think the choice clearly was ‘look, we’re going to put the best possible tyre on, and that’s a brand new medium compound’. It’s almost like it was a defensive decision, whereas the mindset should have been ‘let’s go for what we know is going to be the fastest, and we’ll make it work’.”

Lewis Hamilton ‘couldn’t believe’ one McLaren feat at Silverstone

Former F1 driver Alex Wurz feels that Norris has to be ‘hard on himself’ after missing his marks. While he struggled with degradation in his final stint anyway, this error may have denied him the chance to defend the lead on track.

By contrast, Jenson Button has warned Norris not to be overly self-critical. He fears that things could ‘spiral out of control’ if he continues to ‘put himself down massively’.

McLaren will rigorously review the events of Silverstone in an attempt to bolster their operation. But it was a race that once again underlined the versatility of the MCL38.

Whatever the track profile, and whatever the conditions, they seem capable of competing for the win. Indeed, Lewis Hamilton ‘couldn’t believe’ how fast McLaren were in the rain as he and Russell slid off the track.