Jenson Button has expressed concern for Lando Norris’s health following comments made following the British Formula 1 Grand Prix. Norris was a favorite to win at Silverstone, but a strategic mistake by McLaren caused Norris’ car to have soft tires when switching from intermediates to slicks, instead of completely new intermediates. Only for unexpected situations.
Norris also pitted a lap later than Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, allowing both to pass him as Hamilton overtook McLaren for the lead, while Verstappen eventually moved up to second in the closing laps. After the race, an emotional Norris felt the team had once again “thrown away” a grand prix win, as he had only taken one win this season, despite McLaren having the fastest car. Speaking to the media after the race, Norris also appeared very emotional, but 2009 world champion Button was worried about this young British driver. “Lando needs to be a little more careful with his emotions,” Button shared on Sky Sports F1.
“He was putting himself down a lot in the last race, this race, things could easily get out of control. “We know how important it is to keep our stance. He is very talented so I don’t want him to be too self-conscious and not be able to return to the next race. “You also don’t want to show your competitors that you’re in a weak position. That’s a weakness you don’t want to show. “It’s great that he’s open about his feelings and that’s great for us viewers. “But I’m only thinking about the competitive side of the issue. He shouldn’t be too self-conscious about himself.”
What did Norris really say?
Third place was Norris’ seventh podium finish of the season, but for the fourth consecutive race he saw Verstappen extend his gap at the top of the championship, which now stands at 84 points.
The previous best record for overcoming a points gap to win the championship was Verstappen’s 46 points over Charles Leclerc in 2022, although that gap came after just three races out of the season’s 22 races tournament, with Norris only 12 of 24 races remaining in ’24, when he regretted his strategy at Silverstone. “We still had a week where we were clearly fastest. We were always there or close to it, but never the car, and I think we need to keep working as a team,” Norris shared. share with the media.
“I need to keep working harder and try to perfect everything because there are still a lot of positives. “There’s a lot of good things and a lot of things that have been there, but it’s disappointing that sometimes this season we’ve thrown away what should be ours. I’ve been hearing that a lot lately, so I hate to say it again. But yeah, I mean, a lot of things went well. We dumped it at the last stop. “So it’s a round, but I don’t think it’s a round either. I think even if I make a perfect round, our decision to switch to Softs was wrong. “I thought Lewis would have won regardless. So two calls from our side to cost us everything, especially here, is disappointing.”
