“We should have won” - Lando Norris blames McLaren for wrong Safety Car call
Lando Norris says McLaren made the wrong call during an early Safety Car period in Canada.
Lando Norris felt McLaren threw away a potential victory at the F1 Canadian Grand Prix.
Starting third on the grid, Norris found himself in contention for the win in Montreal and twice led Sunday’s wet and wild race, having overtaken both Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Mercedes’ George Russell.
Norris lost the lead under the first Safety Car after staying out one lap longer on his intermediate tyres compared to his rivals when the field switched onto slicks as the track started to dry.
By the time he pitted, the Briton ended up rejoining the track in third, behind Verstappen and Russell. A further pit stop for Russell under a second Safety Car promoted Norris up to second, where he would finish.
"We should have won today, simple as that. We didn't do a good enough job as a team to box when we should have done and not get stuck behind the safety car," Norris said.
"I don't think it was a luck or unlucky kind of thing. I don't think it was the same as Miami. This was just making a wrong call, so it's on me and the team and it's something we'll discuss after.
"We should have won today, we're at the level now where we're not satisfied with second, the target is to win and we didn't do that. So frustrating. But a tough race and to still end up in second when it could always be worse is still a good result.”
Norris, who capitalised on the timing of a Safety Car to beat Verstappen in Miami, made it clear McLaren had made a mistake, rather than simply getting unlucky.
"Staying out on the intermediate tyre helped me have a chance against George," Norris added.
"I overcut him, then I didn't do a good enough job afterwards and he was way quicker than us on the dry and on the hard tyres, so that was completely the right call and a good decision from us to stay out - it gave me a lot of lap time.
"It's not the timing of the safety car, I had enough time to box and we didn't box, so it was a mistake on us as a team and something we didn't do a good enough job with."
