Photo: McLaren F1 Team
Norris claims his retirement put him out of misery in Canadian GP
Lando Norris had a tough race in Montreal as his team decided to put both cars on intermediate tires for the start. Even though he took the lead right at the beginning he later suffered a power unit failure and had to retire from the race. He also admitted that there are positives to take from the Grand Prix as Mclaren was the only team who was able to challenge Mercedes.
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Because there was a rain forecasted on Sunday’s race, McLaren decided to take a bold move and let both cars start on intermediate. Even though Norris had a great start and took the lead immediately, team’s decision quickly proved to be wrong as the track dried and there was no rain after all.
They were later forced to put both cars on slicks which dropped Norris to 14th position. His recovery drive was hindered as he had to pit for a second time because of reliability concerns. As the British driver started to make his way through the grid he had to retire after reporting a possible gearbox issue which Norris claimed that “put him out of misery”.
When the race ended for Norris, he reflected on the tire choice, quoted by the official Formula 1 website: “It was just, if the rain shifted one per cent more, I think that would’ve suited me nicely. It didn’t, and it went maybe one per cent the other way and it’s tough to know these kinds of things.” He also added that in wasn’t a bad decision for the first lap, but overall it didn’t work out in his favour.
“But I also pushed for it myself quite a bit, so we take it on the chin and we tried to maximise the race after that, but we had some problems and we had a failure in the end which put us out so, yeah, put us out of our misery in a way,” he continued.
Despite all the difficulties with the tires and an extra pitstop Norris felt optimistic about McLaren’s pace over the weekend: “It’s hard to just look at positives now, but I was positive. The car was performing well. It still felt like a horrible car to drive at times, today mainly in these cold conditions, but I’m sure it’s probably similar for everyone.”
Norris also praised the team as McLarens were the only one who was able to fight with the Mercedes. According to his words there are plenty of good things they have to take with them so he is excited for the future.
