The sudden downpour ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix sprint led to a rolling start; as soon as the formation laps started, the sun quickly appeared to indicate the importance of pitting for intermediate tyres soon.
With the race only going 11 laps as the Safety Car pulled into the pits following multiple formation lapa, numerous drivers switched from wet to intermediate tyres immediately, including Oscar Piastri; meanwhile, Lando Norris, who started in the fifth position, pitted a lap later.
Photo Credit: McLaren Racing
Pitting after his teammate proved to be a handicap in his hopes of getting a better strategy; however, Norris insisted that the team “did what we could” despite him finishing the sprint in sixth position.
“It’s hard to choose whether to pit on the first or the second one; it’s a little bit luck of the draw.”
“I think we did what we could; I think I only lost to people who pit first into the pitlane, which we knew it was gonna happen.”
“I can’t complain about it; it’s just the way it happens sometimes; I think we did well apart from that.”
McLaren has been consistently strong since bringing their upgrades to the Austrian Grand Prix; the car has been competitive in the following three races, scoring points and bagging two podiums with the Brit at Silverstone and Hungary.
The British driver has concerns about the pace of the MCL60 in the race tomorrow, admitting that the downforce level they chose was “not in the optimal range of downforce” and that they were losing “6, 7, 8 tenths just on the straights”.
“I would say so; I think the result have been obviously good for Oscar, overall I think we struggled a bit with the pace compared to the leaders and compared to where we were.
“I think we’re not in the optimal range of downforce. I think we went for a bit too high, and that’s costing us probably close to 6, 7, 8 tenths just on the straights alone, and then you add in clipping and the battery harvest, it can be easily almost a second on the straights during the race, obviously we’re getting a decent amount back in the corners.
“Maybe just not in the optimal place, which, I guess, is a penalty for having only FP1 and qualifying on Friday; we were just not able to set the car up in the right window.”
Dilano Van’t Hoff’s loss earlier this month in wet conditions led many people to question the circuit’s safety and the FIA to be more careful with sending drivers out on a slippery circuit. These decisions led to a delay, but even when the drivers went out on the formation laps, many reported poor visibility due to the increasing spray.
When asked about the choice to delay the start, Norris affirmed that it was “just not worth the risk”.
“The problem is just the spray; we can’t go out earlier; I don’t know why the spray seems so bad here more than before; you can’t see anything, and after what happened here, it’s just not worth the risk.
“I think they did what they should’ve done; I guess I would’ve loved if the race was a few laps longer, but we were not so quick at the end.”
