Tag Archives: lando-norris

Red Bull Formula 1 boss Christian Horner says that Max Verstappen’s pace in the Miami GP was hampered by floor damage sustained when the Dutchman hit a bollard at the chicane.

Later in the race after a safety car period gave Lando Norris a free stop and the lead Verstappen was unable to challenge the McLaren driver, and gradually fell back.

Horner insisted that the consequences of the earlier incident played a role in allowing Norris to make his escape and consign Verstappen to second place.

“I don’t think we had a great balance all weekend, and then obviously he hit the bollard around lap 20,” he said. “And that’s actually done quite a lot of damage to the underside of the car. So we’d have to look at exactly what the effect of that was.

“He had enough pace at that point, he was he was pulling clear of Oscar [Piastri] behind, and Lando, before we picked up that damage. And then obviously thereafter we then pitted. And the safety car came out at the best time for Lando, it gave him essentially a free stop.

“But obviously not great for us, because then you’re on tyres that are six laps, seven laps older. And with the damage, I think that actually second place was actually still a pretty decent result.”

Expanding on the extent of the damage he said: “It’s a reasonable amount – the area around the left rear floor, there’s a reasonable amount that’s missing, and you can see it will be flexing as well. So it certainly wouldn’t be helpful.”

Asked if Norris had the pace to win without the aid of a safety car intervention giving him track position Horner said it was impossible to know.

“I think what we saw today was it was very difficult to come through the traffic,” he noted. “Who knows? That’s something that we won’t be able to answer, because there wasn’t a huge amount of overtaking in the top 10.

“So it would have all depended on where he came out after his pitstop, which would probably have been third or fourth.”

Horner insisted that with Verstappen’s Saturday sprint win taking into account it had still been a successful weekend for Red Bull.

“I think we have to congratulate Lando on his first victory,” he said. “It’s always a big moment for any grand prix driver to win their first race.

“So congrats to him and to McLaren. But we’ve still managed to score the most points in the drivers’ this weekend with the sprint race yesterday, and the most in the constructors’ as well. So it’s still been a very strong weekend.”

Regarding McLaren’s form he added: “They had good pace in the second half of the race. They were quick on the medium in the sprint race quali.

“We still managed well two poles here this weekend, a sprint victory and we were leading the race had it not been for the safety car. But you can see they’ve definitely made a step forward. So it will be then interesting to see what happens over the next few races once we head back to Europe.”

McLaren Formula 1 team principal Andrea Stella says that Lando Norris’s first GP win in Miami is a weight off the shoulders of both the Englishman and his team.

Norris scored his first victory early in his sixth season in F1, and in his 110^th start at the top level, having previously earned 14 podium finishes.

Stella admits that there’s a collective relief at the team team now that it has provided him with a truly competitive car, helped by an upgrade package introduced in Florida.

“Realistically, I think it was a bit of a weight on his shoulders,” said Stella. “But it was some weight on our shoulders as well. Because we knew that as soon as we had made winning material available to Lando, he would have delivered, so we felt the responsibility.

“And I think I said that many times. We feel like it’s up to us, it’s not up to Lando. But credit to Lando that he kept developing. I think we already talked about how he developed over the winter, especially looking at for instance improving in qualifying, delivering laps that sometimes don’t have to be 100%.

“When you have a fast car, just be there. And I think he’s doing that. And also I have to say his race management is now very mature. As soon as he saw that there wasn’t much to do after the first lap, he started had to save tyres, because he knew his race would come at some stage.

“And then the pace he was able to pull off once the cars ahead of him pitted, then that was quite incredible. So fast in qualifying, even sometimes pacing himself, and very mature in the race in terms of getting the most out of the material he has.”

While a safety car period gave Norris a break in terms of track position Stella insisted that he was competitive in his own right.

“I already had early on some important clues, like when we saw Oscar [Piastri] overtaking a Ferrari,” said the Italian.

“Max was opening a gap, but he wasn’t as fast as usual, let’s say. And then when the cars ahead of Lando pitted and we saw what kind of lap times Lando was able to do, then even without the safety car, we thought like, if we keep Lando out, and we build a good gap, then we’re going be fast at the end with a fresh set of hard tyres.

“I think the victory sort of came with a little bit of help from the safety car. But I think we were in a strong position even independently, because the pace of the car was strong.

“We couldn’t necessarily see it in the other sessions, but we had spells of very strong performance at times. But we were uncertain whether the truth was the strong performance, or some of the disappointment like we had in the sprint qualifying three, for instance.”

Stella admitted that while Norris built up a handy lead in the closing laps the fear was that a safety car would allow rivals to switch to fresher tyres for the restart.

“The last laps, the main concern for me was the safety car,” he said. “Because it would have been difficult to make a decision when you leave the race as to like, do we stop or not to put some new rubber?

“And also you don’t know how long there’s going to be the race after the restart. So that was the main reason of concern over the final laps, and there were many battles. So anytime you see an overtaking, please don’t crash! So those were the thoughts at the end of the race.”