Lando Norris lost the lead to Oscar Piatri at the start of the Grand Prix of Belgium in 2025, but the race against his teammate was still not lost. In the end it shouldn’t be enough. Several opportunities offered themselves to capture the teammates again during the race – but Norris could not use them.
The first option was at the end of the eleventh round. Lewis Hamilton, Nico Hülkenberg, Pierre Gasly and Fernando Alonso already switched to Slicks. But with McLaren everything stayed the same: Piatri had the boxing priority as the leading person and came a round later, Norris had to stay outside until the end.
Norris could have taken the lead with a stop in parallel to Hamilton and Co., but remained reserved: When his racing engineer William Joseph asked him about Slicks, he replied in round 11: “It will be, but it is not that time.” In the case of a safety car, he would have even taken new intermediate in the case of a safety car-while Piatri asked at a safe-car to switch to slicks at the same moment.
McLaren-Pilot Norris is annoyed
So the eleventh round passed without a McLaren getting in. In retrospect, Norris admits: “If we could do it again, we would probably be annoyed that we stayed outside. There were enough signs that we should have stopped earlier.”
“But nobody stopped so early – except Lewis, who went in a lap ahead of us. It was particularly bitter for me because Oscar got the right round and I was just too late. That’s how it is.”
Here it should be noted that Norris was only informed about Hamilton, not the other three vehicles.
Would a double stack have been advantageous?
When the Hamilton Quartet changed tires and McLaren evaluated the first microsectors, the team informed both drivers about the development. Shortly before the end of the round, Norris confirmed that he wanted Slicks immediately, but at exactly the moment Piastri from his engineer Tom Stallard got a express instruction for pit stop.
Because Piatri was in the lead, he was preferred. Norris stayed outside – and had nine seconds behind after his own stop. A tasty left front wheel when putting on, the pit stop delayed.
Wouldn’t it have been better to get in directly behind Piatri and accept a so-called “double stacking”? Norris replies evasively: “I have to ask the team that.”
Double-Stack would have been possible
He only got the announcement “Box to Overtake” on the radio, but when Piatri came to the box in front of him, he continued. Apparently it was a so -called opposite call – i.e. the instructions to do exactly the opposite of the car in front.
“Of course you lose time on the double stop. But afterwards the Slick tire was much better at the time, and the decision to stop was relatively late,” said Norris.
Team boss Andrea Stella explains: “Yes, we considered a double stacking. At the same time it was possible to deviate from it. He decided to deviate.”
Hard tires as a joker
To do something else than Piatri, Norris raised hard tires – the only one in the field at this time. He only met the choice shortly before the pit stop with his engineer when he was already on Blanchimont: “Will [Joseph] Asked me if I wanted the hard and I said. That’s it. “
“To be honest, I didn’t even know that Oscar was going on a medium – that had no influence on my decision. I just thought the hard tire would be a better choice until the end. Sure, it is more difficult to warm up, but soon I had a little more grip.”
On the other hand, almost all other drivers chose the medium, the C3 mix. The hard tire was the C1, i.e. two steps harder. Accordingly, Piatri rated the option accordingly: “There were both risks. If I had been in Lando’s position, I would probably have done the same thing as he. At that moment the medium just seemed safer to be safer. If a safety car comes out in the weather, you don’t want to be on the C1.”
According to Stella, McLaren had no specifications: “The medium was always our first choice. But then Lando thought [also die Norris-Seite der Garage]that the route dried so quickly that the hard would be possible. “
What the driving errors cost
Norris therefore already had a loss of time due to the additional round on intermediate and the tasty left front tires during pit stop. It quickly became clear that the hard tires were extremely competitive. From the nine seconds, eight, then 7.8, then suddenly 9.1.
Norris had lost control in the Double Gauche de Pouhon in round 26 and was at the beginning again. He caught up again, now in bigger steps, when he braked in La Source in round 34 and lost almost a second. The same mistake undertook him again in the penultimate round, this time with more than one second loss of time.
In view of three mistakes and a gap of only 3.415 seconds, the question arises whether Norris could not have gained. “In curve 1 I braked myself a few times, in Pouhon I’m far out over a violent bump – I lost a few seconds again,” confirms Norris.
Conditions were difficult
But he immediately invalidates: “But Oscar has also made one or the other mistake. The conditions were just extremely tricky. And if you try to drive the gap, you have to go to the limit. You can’t just cruise – and if you drive on the limit, you can sneak in. This is racing.”
Despite the missed chance, his conclusion remains positive: “I am not dissatisfied. Of course I will look at what I might have been able to do better – but overall I felt that I did a good job. I was quick, I was up. It was just the first round that cost me the race.”
Stella also sees it similarly: “Lando had a few times blocking bikes in curve 1 and also a little oversteer in curve 9 – that cost him time. I think that in the end it prevented us from seeing a really exciting duel. But Oscar has also lost a few times in curve 1.”
And Piatri drove in round 42 and 43, the third last and penultimate, his personally fastest rounds in 1: 45,933 and 1: 45,706 minutes. Norris was traveling in the middle to high 45 area, only in the said round 42 he drove an outstandingly fast round in 1: 45,257 minutes.
So everything suggests that Piatri had enough reserves at the end to secure victory – even if Norris had done everything perfectly. But if you show yourself how much time Norris has left not only through the mistakes, but also the late and slow pit stop, the victory would have been in it – or at least a gripping duel.