Lando Norris believes he could have set a quicker lap in Monza qualifying had his team-mate Oscar Piastri not made a mistake in the closing moments of Italian Grand Prix qualifying, which may effectively have cost the defending Formula 1 world champion a few positions on the grid.
Norris was ninth in qualifying, with his best Q3 lap coming on his first attempt. His 1m21.966s put him seventh in the order after the first runs, but he was unable to improve on his second attempt.
This was largely down to the fact that, he reckons, he ended up effectively first on the road in the closing stages of the session.
Norris later explained that McLaren’s plan was for Piastri to run ahead of him on that attempt to provide him with a tow. The McLaren drivers were the first to leave the pits for the final runs, with Piastri leading Norris. But Piastri, who was third after the first runs, made a mistake into Turn 1, locked up and aborted his lap, leaving Norris without the assistance of a slipstream, which is particularly valuable at Monza.
On the first run, Norris had been ahead of Piastri but still had a slipstream from George Russell in front. His time was three tenths slower than his team-mate’s, before he was left without the planned tow on the second run because of Piastri’s mistake.
“I had priority in terms of I had to go out first of the pitlane on Q3 run one, which meant Oscar had a couple of cars ahead of him and I just had the one [of Russell] and most of my time loss is just in the straights,” Norris said.
“So it’s nothing I can do, it wasn’t my best lap either, I’m not going to deny that, but the majority of my time is just lost in the straights – and of course on the second run, it’s my time to go behind and get a bit of a slipstream and that certainly didn’t go as I’d hoped.”
Oscar Piastri, McLaren
Photo by: Manuel Eletto / Getty Images
Norris explained that because McLaren is still struggling with straightline speed, he and his team-mate needed to follow other cars particularly closely, with a gap of around two seconds required to optimise their laps.
Indeed, when Piastri crossed the line to start his final lap in qualifying, Norris followed just 2.3 seconds later. But the Australian locked his right-front tyre on the approach to Turn 1 and took to the escape road. By the time he rejoined the track, Norris was already coming through and passed his team-mate.
Piastri explained that McLaren’s position in the pitlane, with the team’s garage being far from pit exit, was behind the decision to send its cars out first. Waiting longer risked leaving both drivers at the back of the queue and potentially without enough time to complete their final laps.
“The slipstream is really important, obviously,” the Australian said. “We kind of knew going into the into the session that where we are in the pitlane, we often have to leave the garage first, because if we don’t, we end up being last. There was a fair bit of mess behind us, behind me and Lando.
“And if you don’t go early enough, you get stuck right at the back of that and you don’t get a lap.”
Piastri also admitted he had been too ambitious under braking for Turn 1 as he tried to make up time.
“So the second lap, yeah, I was leading the train around,” he said. “I think I was already like two tenths down into Turn 1. So I tried to compensate. Your braking point changes quite a lot with that speed difference. So I tried to probably be a bit too ambitious, locked the front and that was it.”
Lando Norris, McLaren
Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images
That left Norris without a tow, and his second lap was a 1m22.573s, around three tenths slower than his first.
When asked whether a slipstream could be worth two or three tenths, Norris insisted its value was considerably greater: “No, it’s more like half a second, maybe even more.”
An improvement of half a second on his final lap could potentially have put Norris in the fight with the Ferraris and Max Verstappen, who occupied positions from fourth to sixth in the qualifying order.
“It cost me because I have no slipstream, that’s it,” he said. “It doesn’t matter, we’re useless as a car, we’re so slow in the straight, we have to have a good slipstream otherwise we’re not quick enough.
“Oscar made use of a good slipstream and he could make it work. My chance never came around, so I just have to take it on the chin.”
Norris will still gain one position thanks to Kimi Antonelli’s grid penalty, meaning he is set to start eighth, with the Italian dropping to the back of the grid after taking new power unit components this weekend.
Still, the McLaren driver believes he was never in the fight for pole because of his car’s straightline speed deficit compared to the opposition.
“I think the most painful thing this weekend is just the straightline speed deficit,” he said. “Kimi could do a 22.1s or a 22.0s pretty much with no slipstream. With a slipstream he [would be] doing a 21.6s or something.
Lando Norris, McLaren
Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images
“I think we needed to be incredibly close to someone. I had a one car tow and I lose two tenths to Oscar who had a two-car tow [on the first run]. It’s painful in that sense, but otherwise it’s just what we’ve got to live with for now.”
After winning the last two races in Hungary and the Netherlands, Norris is aware it will be difficult to repeat that result at Monza – not only because of his starting position, but because the track is less favourable to McLaren’s characteristics.
“The people who were quick are because they’re quick, not because they got lucky. They were quick from Q1 run one,” he said. “They’re quick because they’re very good in the straights, they’re good in low-speed corners, they completely deserve to be where they are, they didn’t get lucky in any way.
“For us, we’re probably one of the slowest in the straights. We have to start a lap two seconds behind someone, which is pretty insane. Otherwise, we’re just not quick at all. We’ll see what we can do tomorrow, but I think in any situation, if we get to [be in] clean air, we’re not going to be very good at all. Really, I think we’re quite a long way off.
“It’s just that Oscar did a good job today and I never had that opportunity.”
Piastri ended up third in qualifying, but will start Sunday’s race from sixth after receiving a three-place grid penalty for impeding Lawson in Q2.
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– The Autosport.com Team
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