Jolyon Palmer defends Lando Norris, blames McLaren for Sochi blunder

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Former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer has said Lando Norris was in no way responsible for the escaped Russian Grand Prix victory.

Pole-sitter Norris had delivered a good race after regaining the lead from Carlos Sainz in Sochi, but a major challenge loomed in the final stages as Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes approached.

As the battle began, however, heavy rains returned to the Sochi Autodrom, leaving the drivers with a dilemma as to whether to stop for intermediates or continue on dry tires and hold on until the end.

Norris pushed his McLaren team for the latter, and it backfired as the rain intensified, leaving Norris a passenger as he limped back into the pit lane.

This intersection came several laps too late, leaving Norris to finish P7 while Hamilton claimed a 100th victory in Formula 1.

It has to be argued that Norris’ pit wall should have overturned his decision, a view Palmer strongly supports.

“I don’t think Lando did anything wrong,” he said on the Checkered Flag podcast.

“He’s made mistakes in the past and champions, they make mistakes when they come in and they learn from them.

“Hamilton did that, [Max] Verstappen did it, they’re at that very high level – but honestly Norris isn’t far from that level right now, he’s had such a brilliant season.

“But he was only driving according to the information he had. The information he had was poor and that is why the call was there.

“We’ve heard Hamilton wanting to do the same as Lando, and he’s a seven-time world champion at the peak of his ability, with all the experience he’s had, okay with the choice Lando has made since. the cockpit.

“So I absolve Norris of all blame in this one.”

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Under great stress as Hamilton approached and the rain fell, Norris got very lively with his McLaren team on the radio, even telling his engineer to “shut up” at one point.

But Palmer doesn’t think it was a show of arrogance on the part of his compatriot.

Instead, Palmer thinks Norris needed more concise and useful information than what he was receiving.

“I think arrogant is a horrible word for what happened in this race for Lando,” said Palmer.

“He told his engineer to be quiet on the radio during the race. His engineer said it was getting slippery over there and he said “shut up”.

“For anyone who thinks that’s arrogance, try driving a Formula 1 car with slick tires leading a race three laps from the end – and he’s been off the road twice. – with Lewis Hamilton in the neck.

“It’s just the tension of the moment. If you have information, do it right, not just “it’s getting slippery out there” or this or that. It should be concise information saying “It will rain more”. Box.’

“This is the decisive call that had to come from the pit wall. Just to say it’s getting slippery… It’s not unnecessary information, but when you are driving you need more concise information and it has to be very, very clear.

This struggle to provide the correct information may well be due to Palmer’s suspects, as McLaren and Norris aren’t used to aiming for wins in these mixed conditions, unlike Mercedes and Hamilton.

“Maybe this is where Mercedes has more experience in these conditions, maybe they’ve won so many championships, Hamilton got their 100th win, they know how to handle those times,” suggested Palmer.

“But Lando and the team …[Daniel] Ricciardo won last time around, but on Lando’s garage side, they haven’t been in this stressful situation for a very long time, if ever.

PlanetF1 Verdict

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