McLaren accused of being too “polite” as Lando Norris strategy decisions scrutinised
"Mercedes and Red Bull appear to have the edge in terms of making consistently good decisions as a team."
Ex-F1 strategist Bernie Collins feels that McLaren are too “polite” when making strategy calls for Lando Norris.
Norris missed out on another F1 victory as a crucial decision to fit soft tyres - rather than mediums - handed Lewis Hamilton the win at the British Grand Prix.
McLaren’s strategy choices were once again scrutinised after the race, particularly how they communicated with Norris.
McLaren were in the fortunate position of having a spare set of medium tyres available for the final stint - the favourable tyre compound at Silverstone.
However, Norris wanted to go on softs after he was told by McLaren that Hamilton was on them - rather than McLaren making the decision for him given they knew the medium was better, which was later proved by Oscar Piastri.
Speaking on the latest episode of the Sky F1 podcast, Collins thinks there’s too much “hesitation” on the McLaren pit wall.
“Mercedes and Red Bull appear to have the edge in terms of making consistently good decisions as a team,” she said.
“The same happens across Max and GP. I think it’s just the build of the relationship with Lando Norris is pretty new and there just doesn’t seem to be that trust there.”
“There’s been a few personnel changes from a strategy side, so they just need to get a bit more trust. Even if they’d decided in the final pit stop; what tyre they were fitting and it was wrong, then you go back and you review it later. But that would have been better than having this hesitation.”
Collins made reference to Hamilton’s relationship with Mercedes and how they’re not afraid to “call each other out.”
“Lewis is happy to call out the pit wall,” she added. “The pit wall is happy to call out Lewis and tell him it’s going to be fine - we’ve heard it so many times before. They’re almost less polite with each other. It’s like this is what we think and we think you’re wrong. They’re able to call each other out.
“In Lando-McLaren, it’s a bit more polite. It’s ‘like what you think, you go first’. We just can’t have that in F1. It just needs to be this is my opinion and I am sticking to it. It needs a bit more work.”
