Norris on his Monza performance:  “I would say it’s one of my best I’ve done definitely this year”

Tuesday 13 September 2022

F1 | Italian GP | Norris on his Monza performance:  “I would say it’s one of my best I’ve done definitely this year”

Despite losing three-four places at the start of the Italian Grand Prix, battling with Fernando Alonso on the opening lap to hang onto sixth, had a charging Carlos Sainz overtaking him, and a slow pit stop to boot, Lando Norris performed the best he’s done all season, taking a P7 finish.

Lando Norris had a realistic opportunity to finish on the podium in the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday, starting third on the grid behind Charles Leclerc and George Russell. But after a slow start that saw Championship leader Max Verstappen launch himself into P3 by lap two, the McLaren driver eventually crossed the line to finish in seventh.

The Italian Grand Prix was, ‘up and down,’ for Norris. Speaking with MotorLAT and other media outlets after the race he said that I “probably should have finished P5 today, so I’m a bit disappointed. [It was an] extremely poor launch because of incorrect settings. Nothing I could’ve done differently really, and a poor pit stop which probably cost us the position to Lewis. 

“Whether or not he wold have passed me after a few laps, quite possibly, but we would have had a race, an opportunity and maybe I could’ve hung on until the Safety Car - Yeah, fifth was where we should’ve been today but we ended up seventh.”

It wasn’t clear at the time if Norris’s poor start was down to the Briton, or the car:

“Nothing I could have done [at the race start] it was just settings for the launch which you have to have, you can’t adjust through the stint. Once the one minute signal goes or whatever, you’re not allowed to change it, so nothing I could have done. They [McLaren] told me, and I kinda expected something poor - of course when the lights go out and you have to react you feel like you’ve got to get it going. It’s something that’s never happened and probably will never happen again, hopefully, touch wood, so we’ll get it next time.”

Unsurprisingly for Monza, a DRS train formed, which made it difficult for those caught up in it to overtake. The only way for most is on strategy; McLaren kept Norris out long enough on the medium compound so that he could switch to softs. 

“I went extremely long on the first stint. I think I got to lap 35 or 36. I would say it was probably more like one of my best races in Formula One in terms of management and being patient with things. I would say it’s one of my best I’ve done definitely this year, but almost in [my entire career in] Formula One. P7 doesn’t feel like it accomplishes a lot for what I feel like I did today, but that’s life, it happens. We learn from it and move on.”

On Lap 48 the Safety Car was deployed after Norris’s teammate, Daniel Ricciardo, pulled off the circuit, losing his engine. The track cleared and it looked feasible to go racing again. However, to the annoyance of some of the drivers and team principals, the race stewards declared the race would finish behind the Safety Car. Norris was asked post-race about his thoughts on the decision:

“It’s always tough to say. I guess if the car was totally stuck in gear… If it was in neutral I guess they could have moved it easier. I don’t know how quickly they learned it was stuck in gear. I think they could have at least gone green on the final lap, just for one lap even though the group was still split - there was still a chance for us to race.

“It’s tough. I’m not the person in the position, I’m not the guy under pressure to make these decision - I don’t know all the reasons, so I can’t really comment.”