McLaren says that guiding Lando Norris to the drivers’ championship was by no means in the end its most important goal – because it has at all times been extra centered on the constructors’ crown.
Norris had a golden alternative to shut down Max Verstappen’s factors benefit within the Brazilian Grand Prix, beginning on pole place along with his rival down in seventeenth on the grid.
But, a mixture of an absence of tempo within the moist, driving errors, brake lock-up issues and a badly timed pink flag meant the Briton completed sixth – with Verstappen producing a sensational efficiency to win.
That end result has left him 62 factors adrift of Verstappen with solely three rounds remaining.
Whereas the Brazil end result is a disappointment for Norris in private phrases, McLaren says it adjustments nothing in its method, as a result of the group was solely ever actually interested by the constructors’ battle anyway.
Requested by Motorsport.com about how the Brazil end result would impression the method to the ultimate races, and whether or not it will really take some stress off Norris, McLaren group principal Andrea Stella mentioned: “When it comes to the constructors’ championship, I don’t suppose it adjustments something.
“It was at all times our precedence. Even when there was a name to be made to assist one driver or the opposite, it was at all times secondary to maximising the constructors’ championship.”
Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38
Picture by: Lubomir Asenov / Motorsport Photos
Stella didn’t really feel that the potential of being in a title battle had a lot of an impression 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.
“In the case of the drivers’ championship, I don’t suppose for Lando there was any explicit stress,” he mentioned.
“We have been having fun with this quest, though generally from the surface it could come throughout like there may be an error right here or there possibly.
“It’s like once we locked the tyres with the automotive like we had [in Brazil] I’m not trying on the driver, I’m taking a look at why the automotive retains locking the entrance tyres in circumstances like this. I don’t suppose stress was a major issue in any respect.
“Mathematically we’re nonetheless within the [drivers’] championship, however I believe for Lando and for Oscar, we’ll go to the subsequent races making an attempt to win the races.
“The final two venues ought to be fairly good. Vegas will likely be doubtlessly extra of a Ferrari observe, after which we’ll see. It’s all to play for, and the constructors’ championship stays and has at all times been our precedence.”
Norris himself has at all times performed down ideas of the title, pondering it was in the end a protracted shot to come back from to this point again.
Requested how onerous the Brazil end result was to digest now that the title dream was all however over, he mentioned: “Fairly straightforward. I did all I may right now. That is all. Max gained the race. Good on him. Nicely performed, however it would 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.