Lando Norris was frustrated after a poor strategy call at the start of the Dutch Grand Prix saw him rapidly fall from his starting position of second; watch the Italian GP live on Sky Sports F1 all weekend - Qualifying on Saturday at 3pm and the race on Sunday at 2pm
Thursday 31 August 2023 17:50, UK
Lando Norris has admitted he made himself "look like an idiot" during an expletive-filled radio rant at his engineer during last weekend's Dutch Grand Prix.
Having started second on the grid in Zandvoort, McLaren's hesitance to bring Norris in amid a downpour during the opening laps saw him fall towards the rear of the field.
Having realised he was losing ground, a frustrated Norris eventually insisted on coming in for intermediate tyres, and asked his engineer if he was "stupid" during an intense exchange.
"We just spoke about it a bit now," Norris said on Thursday ahead of this weekend's Italian Grand Prix. "After a few days of kind of reviewing things, making sure we kind of look at things first.
"I always say things that I… When you look at it after, I always make myself look like an idiot and I get that, but the people that I speak to know that I would never mean something like that, of course.
"We made some mistakes with our calls and our strategy and things like that.
"A bit of it is just emotions at the time. I always sound like I'm crying or I'm moaning on the radio. I don't know why, I hate it.
"I feel like I'm really relaxed and chilled in the car but then I'm always the opposite when I listen to myself afterwards."
While Norris accepts that such radio exchanges don't portray him in the best light, the Brit maintained that he had reason to be frustrated.
"There's just always discussions I guess," he added. "There's always things you're trying to tell them and information that you're trying to get.
"There were a couple of times when the information was not to the level that it should have been.
"Clearly, then I guess it gets a little bit frustrating a couple of times. It's stuff we've reviewed - and it definitely won't happen again."
In the dramatic race, which was hit by another downpour in the closing stages, Norris managed to recover for a seventh-place finish.
The 23-year-old has spearheaded McLaren's resurgence, finishing in the top seven in all five races since major upgrades were introduced at the Austrian Grand Prix.
He said: "People always judge things from the outside and like to make comments, but the team know how I work and how we say things and so forth.
"I think in that moment I was a bit frustrated with what I was getting told and some things like that, so I'm not denying that at times, and also in the past, when you're under a pressure and it gets a bit stressful at times, I maybe don't sound the most relaxed.
"A lot of the time I am, and it maybe doesn't come across that way, especially if you're on the outside listening to things. But the team know how I work, and when I'm performing well, when I'm not, and they know how I work - simple as that.
"As long as they know that and I know how they do things and how the speak to me and how we interpret things, then that's all that from my side is needed.
"From what people see on the outside, then I care but in a way I don't care, because I'm doing my job and I just do that to the best I can."
While Norris eventually pitted, his team-mate Oscar Piastri followed team instructions to brave staying out on slick tyres on a very wet track.
The Australian was similarly handicapped by the call, which was made with the team expecting the rain to ease quicker than it did.
"I think we could have done a few things a little bit better," said Piastri, who finished ninth in another impressive performance in his rookie campaign.
"But we've reviewed the race and there were definitely a few calls that given the opportunity again we would have done a few different things.
"To have both of us still in the points at the end of it, considering where we were at one point in the race, I think was still a decent afternoon.
"Of course there's always more, and some other teams and some other drivers showed that if they made the right decisions there were a lot of points to play for.
"So some things to learn, definitely, from my personal development and I think also for the team as well."
Friday 1 September
8.35am: F3 Practice
10am: F2 Practice
12pm: Italian GP Practice One (session starts at 12.30pm)
2pm: F3 Qualifying
2.45pm: F2 Qualifying
3.40pm: Italian GP Practice Two (session starts at 4pm)
5.15pm: The F1 Show
Saturday 2 September
8.20am: F3 Sprint Race
11.15am: Italian GP Practice Three (session starts at 11.30am)
1.10pm: F2 Sprint Race
2.10pm: Italian GP Qualifying build-up
3pm: Italian GP Qualifying
4.45pm: Ted's Qualifying Notebook
Sunday 3 September
7.10am: F3 Feature Race
8.15am: F2 Feature Race
12.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: Italian GP build-up
2pm: THE ITALIAN GRAND PRIX
4pm: Chequered Flag: Italian GP reaction
5pm: Ted's Notebook
Next up for for Formula 1 is Monza, the Temple of Speed, which is the last European race of the season. All sessions from the Italian GP will be live on Sky Sports F1 from this Friday. Stream F1 on Sky Sports with NOW for just £26 a month for 12 months. Cancel anytime
