Lando Norris says he’s “not to proud” about how he handled McLaren’s team orders in the Hungarian Grand Prix, admitting that his actions “clouded over” teammate Oscar Piastri’s first race win.
Norris found himself in the spotlight after delaying McLaren’s instructions to cede the lead to Piastri in the closing stages of the race at the Hungaroring.
While he maintains there was never any doubt that he would comply with the team order, he acknowledges that the way he handled the situation created unnecessary drama.
Speaking ahead of this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, Norris admitted that both he and the team could have approached the situation differently.
But the Briton also expressed disappointment that his actions overshadowed Piastri's historic victory.
"Could it have been handled slightly differently from both a team side and from a personal side? Yeah, absolutely," he said. "I think we would not be having this conversation now in some ways.
“Whether people on the outside think and kind of come up with their own stories of what happened, and what I would have done and wouldn't have done, that kind of thing, I don't mind about that.
“But it's the things that I could have done: the fact that I kind of clouded over Oscar's first race win in F1 is something I've not felt too proud about.
“The fact we had a 1-2, and that was barely a headline after the race. The fact we had a 1-2 and nothing was really spoken about it from that side. Yeah, that's the bits I felt worse about.
“But we’ve discussed it, we have spoken about it. Both sides could have done things a little bit better and a little bit differently.
“It's almost not good that we had it, but it's a good moment that we've had it, we've learned from it, and hopefully it's done better next time.”
In hindsight, Norris believes he should have let Piastri pass immediately after receiving the request from his race engineer Will Joseph, which would have provided him with a chance to fight back.
“Just let him pass straight away,” he said when asked what he should have done. “It's such a stupid thing that I didn't, because we're free to race.
“I could have just let him pass, still tried to overtake and to race him. It sounds so simple now, but it's not something that went through my head at the time.
“It’s such a simple thing like that. You know, I could have done it, but I was just in a good rhythm, and things were going well at the time. So I questioned the team a few times.
“Just let him pass straight away. It's such a stupid thing that I didn't, because we're free to race.
“I could have just let him pass, still tried to overtake and to race him. It sounds so simple now, but it's not something that went through my head at the time.
“It’s such a simple thing like that. You know, I could have done it, but I was just in a good rhythm, and things were going well at the time. So I questioned the team a few times.
“I knew from as soon as he they boxed me before him, that I was going to have to let him go. I was a bit silly, and didn't think of letting him go earlier.”
For all the drama that unfolded between Norris and the McLaren pitwall, the Miami Grand Prix winner insisted that he never would have ignored the order.
“It was always clear I always knew that I had to let him go,” he said. “But the longer I waited, just because it didn't matter if I let him go straight away or at the end, the more people questioned whether I would have done it or not.
“A lot of people think that I wouldn't have done it, but I knew I had to, so that made no difference.”
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