Daniel Ricciardo "did what I wanted to do" - Lando Norris on receiving the short end of the McLaren strategy stick in Mexico
At the 2022 F1 Mexican GP last weekend, Lando Norris, in a rare turn of events, seemed to have an underwhelming outing, while his teammate Daniel Ricciardo absolutely came alive. The Briton explained that he would have liked to have been in Ricciardo's place given that he got quite unlucky with the strategy McLaren took. Regardless, Norris finished the race in ninth, behind the Alpine of Esteban Ocon.
Speaking in a media interaction after the Mexican GP, Norris said:
“[I lost] just two places in the beginning, obviously, both to Alpines, which is the main thing. Just one off the line and then one around the first few corners, which is just a bit unlucky sometimes. So nothing too bad, just the way it is. The rest I think, we did a reasonable job. We covered Yuki [Tsunoda] very early on, which meant I had to go onto the hard tyre. So I would not really what I wanted to do. So maybe a bit of a mistake there to do that.”
“But Daniel did what I wanted to do, which was to stay out and then go onto the soft, which was like, 30-40 seconds quicker in terms of race time. I think we did the best we could. Still managed to get past Bottas bought us with a few laps to go. So that one extra point always helps.”
Speaking about the overall lack of grip that he experienced during the race, Lando Norris added:
“I mean, that’s just what we have to deal with. Yeah, we made a mistake going onto the hard tyre. You don’t have to use it, we chose to. That’s life.”
Lando Norris admits he had talks with Red Bull before signing new contract with McLaren
Earlier this year, Lando Norris signed a long-term contract to continue with McLaren until the end of the 2025 season. He, however, recently revealed that he had also had conversations with other teams, including Red Bull, regarding a potential future together.
Ahead of the 2022 F1 Mexican GP, as reported by Sky Sports F1, the 22-year-old said:
“It’s more just I was coming to the end of my contract, and it wasn’t like we (Red Bull and I) were talking heavily. I literally said, it was just, everyone always tries to speak to all teams at some point, so I spoke to them, I spoke to a few other people. A chat’s a chat, it’s not like, ‘what we can do straight away?’ Just keeping in touch, things like that, it’s as simple as that sometimes. It was just coming to the end of the contract, you see what options are available, you just kind of find out what’s possible, what might be possible over the next few years. It wasn’t just Red Bull. Every driver has chats with a lot of the different teams on what could happen, and it’s as simple as that basically.”
Signed on the dotted line. ✍️🇬🇧
@LandoNorris has committed to a new four-year agreement with McLaren Racing through to the end of 2025!
Lando Norris currently stands 7th in the drivers' standings with 111 points to his name.