What’s behind McLaren’s heavy Norris coaching in F1 Austrian GP?

Lando Norris has said he is “trying to be more accepting” of help as he and his race engineer fought to keep McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri behind in the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix.

Norris was put under immense pressure in the first and third stints of a hard-fought battle, with Piastri briefly passing him in the early stages as both McLaren drivers remained free to race each other for the lead.

Norris’ frequent communications with race engineer Will Joseph made it to the TV broadcast, giving an insight into how the pair is working together, including advice over various corners that Norris should optimise.

Such communication is far from unusual, but the volume of messages making it onto the broadcast caught the eye of TV viewers.

“As much as I like to not have any radio and just do my own thing and concentrate, when you’ve got some quick guys behind you or ahead of you, there’s nothing wrong with asking for a bit of guidance and a bit of help every now and then,” Norris, who took his seventh grand prix win in Austria, explained the process.

“I’m just trying to utilise the guys I’ve got around me. My engineers, my performance engineers, they’re looking at a lot more data than I can see. Obviously, I’m the one in the car, but when you’ve got a guy catching you and there are some corners where you can improve, then I want to know those things. I would say that’s nothing more than just general improvements, but also me trying to be a bit more accepting of some help sometimes.”

Team principal Andrea Stella said Norris’ back and forth with Joseph was down to Piastri being able to stay within DRS range of his team-mate. With the DRS effect quite powerful at the Red Bull Ring, Norris had to pull out all the stops to stay ahead.

When asked about the busy radio traffic by Autosport, Stella explained: “The technical answer is that in the first stint, when Oscar was behind Lando, he was benefiting from DRS. Lando was constantly under pressure and he needed to use his battery to keep the position.

“When you are in this situation in which you manage the battery and you have to use your tyres to gain enough in the corners not to be passed in DRS, you do have to exploit everything that is available in the car and in the power unit management. And you do have to have information coming from your team.”

Norris’ earlier pitstops provided some initial relief, and also allowed him breathing room to charge his battery, but then his older tyre life compared to Piastri reignited the battle.

“In the second stint, Lando was having tyres which were slightly older than Oscar,” added Stella. “And when there is a difference of four or five laps, with the degradation level that you have in Austria, Lando effectively had a car two-tenths of a second slower because of the tyre delta.

“He was, once again, trying to seek all the possible opportunities to maximise his pace. So, the interactions with the engineers, sometimes just to do with the fact that you have a budget – a power unit budget and a tyre budget – and you need to use it at your best.

Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Andrea Stella, McLaren

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images

“There were conversations certainly happening on Oscar’s side as well, but in the first stint it was in a way clearer for Oscar what to do.”

Norris said he applied lessons from racing Max Verstappen at last year’s race, which ended with a high-profile collision, to ensure he could repass Piastri after the Australian first overtook him in Turn 3 on Lap 11.

“I had a really bad exit out of Turn 1, so I was just accepting: “OK, he’s got me here and how can I already put him into a vulnerable position for me to get back ahead into Turn 4?,” Norris told Sky.

“I’m certain last year helped. This was stuff that I did my homework on and it paid off.”