“Not Making the Right Decisions”: Norris Rues Strategy Errors That Cost Him British GP Victory

Lando Norris admitted he didn’t make the “right decisions” as once again fell short, finishing third in the 2024 British Grand Prix.

Despite having a poor start, Norris passed Championship rival Max Verstappen during the first stint, and began to show great pace with track conditions changing from dry to wet. Not only did the McLaren F1 Team driver overtake the Oracle Red Bull Racing driver, he was making up ground on George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, who were comfortable in the lead during the dry.

Strategy calls and poor decisions ultimately cost Norris the race after he was leading during the wet conditions, with teammate Oscar Piastri in second. The team opted to stay out a lap later than Hamilton, and once the McLaren driver had dived into the pits, Hamilton had gained an advantage, which saw him come out ahead.

Not only did McLaren box too late, they also chose to put Norris on the soft tyre. Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team were forced to put Hamilton on the soft compound, but Norris had a new medium available and looking at Piastri’s pace on that tyre towards the end, Norris could’ve easily won the race but instead found himself unable to hold off Verstappen and moving down to third.

Hamilton’s experience was evident when managing the soft tyre to the end, while Norris fell foul once again of poor decision making from himself and McLaren, while Piastri was once again a victim of a poor strategy call around Silverstone.

“I’m not making the right decisions. At the same time, I blame myself today for not making some of the right decisions but I hate it. I hate ending in this position and ever having excuses for not doing a good enough job but I’m still happy. I’m still going to enjoy it.

“I think we still did so many things right, so many positives. But especially here at Silverstone, the one place I would love for everything to go perfectly. It didn’t today, but I’m going to come back stronger next year and try again.”

Norris did take time to congratulation Hamilton, who won his first Grand Prix since 2021 and a record ninth British Grand Prix.

“First of all, congrats to Lewis. That crucial decision at the end, he just did a better job on so hats off to him and Mercedes so they deserve it.

“It was tough. It was enjoyable. It was fun fighting these guys and these tricky conditions are always on a knife edge and you’re risking so many things but a few too many let downs today and as a team, I don’t think we did quite the job we should have done or good enough but still lovely to be on the podium here.”