Lando Norris admitted that he was “accepting of some help” from his McLaren engineers in Formula 1‘s Austrian Grand Prix, enabling him to take a commanding victory.
The Brit claimed his third win of the season at the Red Bull Ring, resisting an early challenge from team-mate Oscar Piastri to be within just 15 points of the Australian’s championship lead
An apparent difference in Norris’ approach in Spielberg was his relentless communication with those on the team’s pit wall, including race engineer Will Joseph.
Gathering an abundance of information on certain aspects of his and Piastri’s races, giving him the knowledge of how to approach every situation, seemed to do the trick, as Norris consistently appeared to have an answer for everything Piastri tried.
Speaking after the race to media including Motorsport Week, Norris put the victory down to ensuring the team’s ability to help him, as well as “normal improvements” from both he and the Woking-based squad.
“It’s part of it,” he said. “Probably not the precise stuff that I’ve been working on, but that’s just part of the general improvements we’ve been trying to make.
“I think it was more normal improvements that I’ve been trying to make. Just things you need when you’re trying to win a race.
“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 ‘wanted to know’ the data that allowed him to push for victory
Norris added that he was ensuring that he has making the most of the team he has at his disposal in order to extract the best possible result, and admitted that the need for asking for help on occasion should not be something for him to be embarrassed about..
“I’m just trying to utilise the guys I’ve got around me,” he said. “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 here and there 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.”
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