With six career poles to Lando Norris’s name, he finally led the first lap of a Grand Prix at the Singapore Grand Prix after losing the lead on the first lap every other times where he started on pole.
The McLaren driver lost the lead by the first turn at the Spanish, Hungarian and Dutch Grand Prix this season, and while he did manage to keep his lead into the first turn at the Italian Grand Prix, P1 was snatched by his teammate Oscar Piastri into the second chicane as the Aussie made a daring and brilliant move.
Norris, who then proceeded to lead the first lap at the Singapore Grand Prix last Sunday, went on to be out front for all 62 laps last Sunday.
Team principal Andrea Stella says that this is a huge confidence boost, but he added there is no obvious reasoning behind the problem in the previous starts.
The Italian explained a lot of analysis went into the previous starts from pole position.
“I don’t disagree that at face value starts and overall approach to the first corner of first lap might have looked like an opportunity for Lando.
“But, having done a little bit of analysis as a group including Lando, we have gone through the season every single start and every single first lap.
“And in fairness, we haven’t found that even in cases in which Lando started in pole position and he was not P1 at the end of first lap, he had kind of given up very much in terms of performance.
“We reviewed Barcelona, and we thought that Russell would have been P1 even with Lando trying something different. There were some opportunities in terms of execution of the start, but we recognise that that was also on the team side.
“For instance, I think it was Zandvoort, the one in which both cars had cold tyres because of an issue from a team point of view, and both cars didn’t have a great start.
“So, I think while at first value, it looked like Lando had a significant opportunity there. Actually, the facts weren’t so clear.”
Stella then added that Norris and the team have been working on everything to get perfect starts. They are getting used to starting in front more often which is increasing confidence and familiarity as it is different from going as a hunter to the hunted.
“Definitely we have been focusing on the execution of the start and preparation of the tyres, Lando himself, even the time we focus on start preparation during a weekend is now more concentrated.
“You gain confidence. And you gain familiarity with starting from pole position, and understanding, even in terms of territorial defense, what you need to do, even to dissuade people for going [for the lead].
“So, I think this is part of the journey, and it’s just good that we are now having to face this kind of opportunity.”
