McLaren F1 sees “no need” to pick up Norris after difficult Spanish GP

McLaren team boss Andreas Seidl says there’s “no need” to console Lando Norris after enduring his most difficult weekend of the 2021 Formula 1 season so far.

Connor McDonagh

11 May 2021

Lando Norris (GBR) McLaren MCL35M.
© xpbimages.com

Norris started the season in fine form with three consecutive top-five finishes, leaving him third in the drivers’ championship, ahead of Mercedes Valtteri Bottas.

In Barcelona, the 21-year-old was beaten by McLaren teammate Daniel Ricciardo in qualifying and then on race day.

Norris could only manage eighth, finishing in the position he started.

Despite having an underwhelming race at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Seidl says the team just needs to move on after being out-scored by Ferrari.

“I think there's no need to pick him up, I just spoke with him after the race and in the end we have to accept how this weekend went,” Seidl said. “Unfortunately, we didn't manage to finish higher up yesterday, despite having a car that had more potential.

“We all know about the circumstances. So it's important also to simply move on. And today in the race, I think he did what he could do from his side, we did from the team side when we could do and it was simply not possible to do more than a P8, which is something you have to accept. I think you need to look also at the positive side, he could move up one position on a track where it's simply difficult to overtake.

“And it's important that we still managed to score 12 points on a race weekend where Ferrari was quite strong. And we only lost today I think six points in the constructor championship. And Lando, so far he had an incredible start into the season with incredible performances so there's no need to pick him up. He's fine. And I'm sure he will strike back together with us the next races.”

Comparatively, Ricciardo enjoyed his most competitive weekend since joining McLaren at the start of the season.

Assessing the Australian’s performance in Spain, Seidl added: “I'm obviously very happy with how it went. In terms of integration of Daniel into our team. I think it's not a surprise how it went also, I think we all know, what personality Daniel is, which character he is.

“So I wouldn't say that is a surprise how he approached these challenging first races with us. I think also on the team side everyone who was involved in this integration process engineering side or the garage side did a great job. In order to stay also calm.”