Did McLaren make a mistake in not allowing Lando Norris to become number one driver in the first place, which would have made him the drivers’ and constructors’ champion? – Tracy
It is debatable – to say the least – whether backing Norris would have made him world champion, as there were in fact very few occasions when McLaren could have been, as he was usually ahead of Oscar Pastry.
The obvious ones are Hungary and Monza.
In Budapest, Norris was on pole but Piastre took the lead at the first corner, and then there was the issue of whether Norris should let Piastre back afterwards. The way the team executed the strategy ended with Norris.
It would have been tough to keep Norris ahead on Piastre – he had won. But let’s say they did – that’s another seven points for Norris.
At Monza, there is a strong argument to be made that McLaren should not have been allowed to race them on the first lap, as Piastre’s brilliant passing move on Norris at turn four saw Charles Leclerc overtake Norris in the Ferrari. Came in second place, from where he went on to win.
It’s impossible to know if McLaren would have won if that hadn’t happened, as Ferrari would still have cheated them with one stop. But even if Norris had won instead of finishing third, that’s an extra 10 points.
Verstappen leads Norris by 63 points. So it’s hard to argue that the team orders in those two events would have made Norris the champion — they just wouldn’t.
But that’s not to say McLaren doesn’t feel there’s something to learn from the way they’ve handled this season.
McLaren Racing chief executive officer Zach Brown was asked before last weekend’s race in Abu Dhabi whether he thought it would have been better to favor Norris beforehand.
He said: “No. I don’t regret things. I tend to learn and go, ‘I wish I had done it differently.’ Otherwise you live in a chain of regrets.
“It was tough, because Oscar was never that far behind Lando (in the championship). We started getting noise that we should back Lando halfway through the season, which was really early.
“I think what we learned, like at Monza we went first and second in turn four and got first and third, but the direction we gave them was more vague. . . .
“So Lando was thinking, ‘I don’t need to stop this hard because I don’t need to take any risks.’ And Oscar was thinking: ‘Hey, the door looks wide open for me.’
“In hindsight, we could have been more specific in, ‘You need to come out of turn four the same way you enter turn four. Clear everybody and then go race.’
“I like that we let our guys race. But if I look at Monza, that’s what we learned. That we need to be more precise, because a driver’s view of what’s dangerous is subjective. “
