Lando Norris jokingly told his race engineer after the British Grand Prix that he hated him, following McLaren’s call to fit the Briton with the Hard compound in the closing stages last Sunday at the Silverstone International Circuit.
Norris performed exceptionally well at his home race and qualified in a superb second, increasing his chances of a first podium of 2023.
That’s exactly what the 23-year-old achieved, as he put on an impressive defensive display late on to finish in second ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
McLaren made Norris’ defence much more difficult though, by fitting him with the Hard compound.
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Norris pitted following the release of a late Safety Car, where he was fitted with the Hard compound.
Hamilton on the other hand, was given the Soft compound by Mercedes.
The McLaren driver was puzzled and angry as to why he was given the Hard compound, given that the Soft would’ve lasted the remainder of the race.
He nevertheless held on to P2 though, with his race engineer having joked with the driver afterwards.
“That was okay,” insisted Norris’ race engineer after the race, referring to the Briton having been put on the Hard compound in the closing stages.
“I hate you,” Norris jokingly replied whilst walking away.
The British driver joked that McLaren are “still beginners” by fitting him with the hardest tyre but insisted that they wanted to “test” him more.
“They put me on hard tyres, I don’t know why, they’re still beginners in some things!” Norris said.
“It was an amazing fight with Lewis, to hold him off, I made a few too many mistakes maybe. I did what I could, I brought the fight to Max for as long as possible. It’s a long, lonely race when you’re just in the middle but it’s amazing.
“I think they just wanted to give me a bit more of a test, I guess. That’s what Zak said anyway. Probably Zak called the shots on that one. I wanted the Softs. I feel it made a bit more sense, especially with the Safety Car coming out.”
Despite seeing the funny side of the incident, Norris admitted that he wants to talk to the team about the decision to fit him with the Hard compound.
Had he not fired them up quickly, Norris could’ve easily tumbled outside the podium places, something which thankfully didn’t happen.
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“I don’t see why we shouldn’t have done it,” added Norris.
“I feel like we put ourselves under a lot more pressure to try and get a Hard tyre to work with a safety car restart with only 10 laps to go pretty much.
“It’s one we’ll talk about. I was telling them to think of the softs quite a bit, insinuating it as much as I could but then they just told me “you’re on the Hards”. Not really what I wanted, but it’s still worked out.”