“It wasn’t my fault, so there’s nothing I can really do, and it’s not my weekend.
“Yesterday, wind and today’s bad luck, a bit of a bad luck… from my control. Tough stuff. It’s frustrating, of course. It hurts a bit from a championship perspective. There’s a lot to lose right away.
Rand Norris had a brave face in his retirement from the Dutch Grand Prix, but his smoke puff from McLaren cannot be taken to represent his championship hopes, but it certainly allowed Oscar Piastri to literally and figuratively draw him far away.
The gap was nine points heading into Zandvoort’s weekend, but Norris watched all the matches against Piastri, but didn’t get the job done in qualifying. Whether it was influenced by the wind on Saturday, he was putting pressure on his teammates because he couldn’t make the move, and the small margin that separated the pair on Saturday was set to be a critical factor for the race weekend.
And one of the things McLaren didn’t want to happen this year happened. What’s outside of the driver’s control is one of those two candidates who scores big points.
“Reliability has long been a strength of McLaren,” said Andrea Stella, principal of the McLaren team. “Today we had what looked like a technical reliability issue, which is always a shame, but I think it’s even more inconvenient as it affects the situation we wanted to be as neutral as possible about what a driver’s individual quest is in the driver’s championship.
“So it’s not ideal for us to have problems with our cars, but that’s what it is.
The whole team will handle this, learn it, check the problem, fix it, make sure this is not just a championship reminder, but clearly this is a major focus now, but it is no longer a factor in the future. ”
Does Norris need to take a more aggressive approach? Joe Portlock/Getty Images
It is a tribute to McLaren that the failure came as such a surprise, and also to both drivers for carrying such a weight. Norris and Piastri are so closely matched that the biggest point between the two has been in Saudi Arabia since Melbourne’s Wet Weather Chaos.
The biggest difference in the last four rounds was eight. As Piastri placed first in the sprint and finished the main race in Belgium, the Sunday leader’s 25-point profit at Zandvoort will return to about three races in his recent form.
“The only thing I can do is win every race,” Norris says of how it will affect his title hopes. “It would be difficult, but I’ll make sure I give everything I can.
“I obviously thought this weekend was good. It’s never been before and I haven’t lost much in Quali, but I always felt I was in pretty cute territory to improve. Without the slight gust of the starting finish yesterday, I’m on the pole.
“The pace today was very strong. There are so many positive things. It’s just close. I have a good teammate. He’s strong. He’s fast in every situation, in every scenario.
“It’s a different situation today. It’s just unlucky. It’s not my fault. Sometimes it’s just a race. It certainly doesn’t help the race.
From the Piastri side, the Australians have shown sympathy for Norris, but have not considered the advantage of 34 points as something they can start to utilize in the way they approach the rest of the race.
“No, I don’t think so. There’s still a long way to go. I still need to try and keep winning the race. I’m not saying that it’s a very comfortable margin. As we saw today, it can change very quickly with one DNF.
With a failure to remind me that McLaren’s cars are not completely bulletproof and can easily suffer the same fate at one stage, Piastry is on two fronts. But it also acknowledges the possibility that Norris could perform at an even higher level if he is in the right heart frame.
“We talk about Rand. He’s one of the most fair and balanced things, as I say, before I do that as a driver, I’m a pretty much a trustworthy individual,” adds Stella. “So when he says he’ll say full commitment or anything he says, if he tries to extract even more from his incredible possibilities, I know that his talent is immeasurable, and I am sure that this situation of his talent will give him a special motivation to try to extract it, so I look forward to seeing his talent being immeasurable.
“When it comes to teams, the key is that the team continues to race just as they have been racing before, so stay as neutral as possible, promote the pursuit of Rand and Oscar in a fair, sportsman-like way, and that’s what we keep doing.
“I don’t think there’s any change in the team’s approach that is triggered based on the fact that this situation is internal.”
But externally, Stella thinks it’s a development that adds extra excitement to the title race, as the previous tense give-and-take dynamics replace Norris with having to go higher on the offense.
“In the message he gave from the radio while he was still in the car, Rand has already proven that he is handling the situation and he is quickly maintaining a constructive mindset,” Stella pointed out. “He said, ‘It’s out of our control, and it’s just an unfortunate incident. There’s nothing we can do, we’ll continue to fight.”
“So he’s already saying himself, so if not, he wouldn’t be surprised. He’s a very mature person and, as I said before, a very fair and very balanced driver.
“If there is, I will provide the greatest support to make sure he stays in the fighting spirit, but as I said before, I think this will come very naturally.
“So I look forward to seeing Land in the upcoming races, and I am sure this will be a great sight for Formula 1.
While the title race may change the way you play now, McLaren hopes it doesn’t prove that it is the biggest determinant of who will become the champion in Abu Dhabi.