McLaren says that guiding Lando Norris to the drivers’ championship was by no means in the end its foremost goal – because it has all the time been extra targeted on the constructors’ crown.
Norris had a golden alternative to shut down Max Verstappen’s factors benefit within the Brazilian Grand Prix after beginning on pole place and his rival down in seventeenth on the grid.
However a mixture of an absence of tempo within the moist, driving errors, brake lock-up problems and a badly timed purple flag meant the Briton completed sixth – with Verstappen producing a sensational efficiency to win.
That consequence has left him 62 factors adrift of Verstappen with solely three rounds remaining.
Whereas the Brazil final result is a disappointment for Norris in private phrases, McLaren says it adjustments nothing in its strategy, as a result of it was solely ever eager about the constructors’ battle anyway.
Requested by Autosport about how the Brazil consequence would affect the strategy to the ultimate races, and whether or not or not it might really take some stress off Norris, McLaren group principal Andrea Stella mentioned: “By way of the constructors’ championship, I don’t suppose it adjustments something.
“It was all the time our precedence. Even when there was a name to be made to assist one driver or the opposite, it was all the time secondary to that to maximising the constructors’ championship.”
Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38
Picture by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Photos
Stella didn’t really feel that the potential of being in a title battle had a lot of an affect on Norris’s efficiency at Interlagos, as he felt each group and driver knew it was a bonus to be within the combat within the first place.
“Relating to the drivers’ championship, I don’t suppose for Lando there was any explicit stress,” he mentioned.
“We have been having fun with this quest, although generally from the skin it could come throughout like there’s an error right here or there perhaps.
“It’s like once we locked the tyres with the automobile like we had [in Brazil] I’m not trying on the driver, I’m why the automobile retains locking the entrance tyres in circumstances like this. I don’t suppose stress was a big issue in any respect.
“Mathematically we’re nonetheless within the [drivers’] championship, however I believe for Lando and for Oscar, we are going to go to the subsequent races attempting to win the races.
“The final two venues must be fairly good. Vegas shall be probably extra of a Ferrari monitor, after which we are going to see. It’s all to play for, and the constructors’ championship stays and has all the time been our precedence.”
Norris himself has all the time performed down ideas of the title, considering it was in the end a protracted shot to come back from to date again.
Requested how arduous the Brazil consequence was to digest now that the title dream was all however over, he mentioned: “Fairly straightforward. I did all I may in the present day. That is all. Max gained the race. Good on him. Effectively finished, however it does not change something for me.”
Whereas Norris misplaced floor within the drivers’ championship in Brazil, McLaren managed to increase its constructors’ benefit over Ferrari by seven factors to 36 factors – which makes it more and more probably that the battle will go all the best way to the ultimate spherical in Abu Dhabi.
Watch: How the Proper Calls Led to Verstappen’s Unimaginable Comeback – F1 Brazil GP Race Response