McLaren’s Andrea Stella said it would be a matter of determining whether Lando Norris’ upsets on the first lap were a trend or simply circumstantial.
Norris has failed to convert any of his F1 pole positions into victories and, after a tricky start to the race in Belgium, his problems on the first lap will be explored in more detail through his McLaren team.
Norris started the Belgium Grand Prix from fourth, only to drop to seventh after Turn 1 when he stuck a wheel into the gravel just off La Source.
This incident came just after he dropped to third from pole at the start of the race in Hungary, while his pole in Spain became third on the opening lap.
The most glaring mistake occurred at the Chinese Sprint GP when Norris dropped seventh on the opening lap after taking the most sensible position on the grid.
Stella, who was constantly wasting positions on the first lap despite good qualifying results, downplayed the significance of the mistakes but explained that McLaren would work with Norris to identify opportunities to do better in those situations.
“This kind of scenario is very marginal,” Stella told the media, adding PlanetF1. com, after the Belgium GP mistake.
“I think Lando got a little distracted by what was happening internally and lost track.
“I think it’s marginal things like this that need little tweaks here and there.
“Of course we work with Lando, as we work with Oscar [Piastri], to see all the opportunities where we can individually, but also collaborate better, whether it’s to be better prepared or to make better use of our roles and our talents. .
“I think it doesn’t necessarily replace our attitude, but it gives us some ideas to look at how some of those missed opportunities manifest themselves.
“Like with Lando, for example, it turns out that statistically there are opportunities that tend to occur in the early stages of the career, so we have to check if it is because of an explanation of why or if it is just random.
“But like any other athlete or any other driver, I think Lando himself will tell the team, we like to think, ‘What can I do better?’ “To make sure we get the most out of the work we do. ”
“I think it’s still in a smart starting position, but once we lost the starting position with that low grade and the difficult overtaking, we definitely made life difficult for ourselves. “
? Lando Norris net worth: What is the McLaren star like and how did his father make his fortune?
? Who is Andrea Stella? From Michael Schumacher’s engineer to McLaren boss
As F1 takes a mandatory two-week break for the summer holidays, Norris explained his perspective on his rocky start and said he is looking forward to the opportunity to take a break from F1’s unforgiving schedule.
“I think I just want to reset it,” Norris told the media, adding to PlanetF1. com, referring to the summer shutdown.
“I lost a lot of problems in the last 3 or 4 races, due to stupidities and mistakes, bad starts.
“I don’t know why. It’s just silly stuff, it’s not even hard stuff. It’s just Turn 1, I’m looking to stay out of trouble, I’m looking to make sure there’s a hole and I don’t get hit. ” and I get out of the way, so just some stupid things.
“The speed is smart, the team is doing an amazing job, so I’m satisfied and in a way I feel like I don’t need to take a break, I just need to keep going, because we’re in good shape. form.
“Even today I feel like the speed was strong, but in the last two or three races I didn’t click as much as I needed to and I lost a lot of points.
“Obviously, my starts weren’t very good. I lost a lot of problems on the line and now I’m back at Turn 1, no problems, a podium or even more. “
“There is no single reason, it is probably simply to check too much and pay the price. “
“So I hope I can become strong. ”
Read next: ‘I feel at home’: Red Bull senior talks new F1 contract extension