Mexico City Grand Prix: Lando Norris delivers ‘statement win’
Norris admitted after the race in Mexico that there were times earlier this year when he “definitely doubted” himself.
“The last thing I could do when I was winning a car and winning an Oscar was to use the excuse that my car wasn’t good enough.
“I didn’t understand it and couldn’t find a way to make it work, and now I’m finding a better way to make it work, so it’s that simple.”
After two difficult weekends where his pace was very low, Piastri is now confronting this feeling.
“For some reason, the last few weekends have required a very different style of riding,” Piastri said.
“What has worked well for me in the last 19 races is that in the last few weekends I needed something very different. It’s been a bit difficult trying to understand why.”
After qualifying 0.588 seconds and seven places behind Norris in Mexico, Piastri spent Saturday night digging into the data with his engineers, trying to find some answers.
The race was about trying to implement these things; Even if he couldn’t get a definitive answer as to whether it worked or not, it would be painful, given that he spent most of it stuck behind other cars on his way to fifth place, but it actually meant solid recovery and an exercise in damage limitation.
“Ultimately today was about trying to try some of these things,” Piastri continued. “Because it’s not natural for me to drive the way I’ve had to do it the last few weekends.
Team boss Andrea Stella had an explanation for Piastri’s difficulties.
He said that Norris is superior in low grip conditions, while Piastri’s driving style is more towards high grip levels, and pointed out that Piastri has things to learn about adapting to different conditions in just his third season.
“There’s no reason to think anyone will favor one driver or the other in the last four races,” Stella said, pointing to Las Vegas as potentially the most problematic area for the team.
“There are no problems in terms of track layout for Lando and Oscar in the next four races. From a McLaren perspective, we have to make sure that we are in a position to bring out all the performance that is available in the car, as we were able to do here in Mexico.”
“Confidence in the championship has increased. It has increased because we have proven that we have a car that can win races and dominate in some conditions. This is the most important factor that puts Lando and Oscar in a position to chase the drivers’ championship.”
