Peter Windsor ‘shocked’ by important decision Lando Norris made during the Sao Paulo Grand Prix

Norris approached the Mercedes driver but could not make a move, prompting him to ask McLaren to pit him for a new set of intermediate tyres. During this stage it started to rain harder, but the team wanted him to stay outside because of the traffic.

Charles Leclerc had pitted a few laps earlier and got caught in the midfield, so it made sense to stay out. Norris was convinced that a pit stop was the best option and when the Safety Car came out due to the conditions it looked like they made a cheap pit stop, but this was later upgraded to a red flag due to a crash by Franco Colapinto.

This allowed all cars that had not pitted to change tires in the pit lane, effectively sending Norris and Russell, who also pitted, to their respective positions in 4th and 5th. Peter Windsor was ‘shocked’ that Norris decided to pit as he spoke on his YouTube channel.

Peter Windsor ‘shocked’ that Lando Norris put pressure on McLaren to pit him

Radio transcripts of the race show that McLaren engineer Will Joseph warned Norris that pitting when he requested it in an attempt to undercut others would not work due to traffic.

McLaren decided to put him in the pits after seeing Russell make a stop, but they lost their track position to Max Verstappen, who fought his way up from P17 on the grid and the two Alpines.

Things went from bad to worse for Norris when he lost places on the restart, leaving him in P6 behind Leclerc. Windsor believes Norris made a fatal mistake when he decided to pit as conditions deteriorated.

“When Lando Norris asked McLaren to pit to get a new set of inters early and gain track position, they said: ‘No Lando, it’s too early, stay out. “I think the McLaren pit wall was absolutely right, but Lando kept hanging on to it and I was surprised and shocked by that,” said Windsor.

“Although he doesn’t have Max’s early turn-in, I thought he would make up for McLaren’s good performance and be the penultimate to change new tyres. I don’t understand, it wasn’t a strategy call from McLaren, they just wanted to please him. He should have stayed out because his tires were not that different from Verstappen’s.”

Lando Norris says George Russell ‘deserved’ Sao Paulo GP victory instead of Max Verstappen

Norris admitted he made too many mistakes to deserve victory in the Sao Paulo Grand Prixwhile Verstappen put in a performance that evoked images of Ayrton Senna according to Karun Chandhok.

The Briton felt George Russell deserved the win more when he spoke to the media after the race, following problems in the second stage.

Norris also admitted that his race was undone by the red flag due to the free pit stop it allowed others to make, giving them the advantage at the end.

Norris is now 62 points behind Verstappen heading into the final rounds of the season, as McLaren maintained their lead in the Constructors’ Championship.

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