Alexander Albon and Lando Norris talk about their Turn 1 coming together in F1 Italian GP, as they share a laugh on it.
Having lost a place to McLaren’s Oscar Piastri at the start of F1 Italian GP, Williams’ Albon got by him for sixth later on. The pit stops changed the order with Norris getting ahead of Piastri in the chase of the Thai racer for the rest of the grand prix.
Norris tired hard to get through Albon but to no avail where they even had a minor contact Turn 1 when the Brit tried the move on the Thai racer. While they battled until the chequered flag, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton managed to get by them both.
Albon noted that Norris would be frustrated for sure by being held up but in their pre-race strategy discussions, they know it won’t be easy for McLaren to pass them. The Thai even joked about the Turn 1 incident where he tried to show that he left space.
“It was tricky because we were really weak in the last corner,” said Albon to media. “We were actually good through Ascari but slow in Turn 11 and they would always catch me up through there. The degradation was huge. Logan and I coming into the race, even on the laps to the grid we thought: ‘This is going to be a really tough race’.
“We didn’t have the pace, but we had the straight line speed. It was what kept Lando behind. I think obviously he must be very frustrated. I would be. We just about did enough at Turn 1 on the brakes. Even though they have more downforce than us it’s not a clean overtake for them.
“Every time they tried to out-brake me, they tended to go wide. We have this straightline speed delta between teams, we are by far the quickest and then McLaren is by far the slowest. That is pretty much in every that we go to. My strategists always say as long as you’re in front of a McLaren, it’s going to be really hard for them to pass you.
“It is genuine like our pre-strategy was basically a train of McLaren cars behind me for the whole race. But it was tougher than we thought. As for out contact, basically, I made sure to leave like to make it look like I gave you so much space into Turn 2 when you cut the chicane, so then ‘I was like well I gave him the space’,” summed up Albon.
While Norris was frustrated to be stuck behind Albon but he felt McLaren salvaged good points on a track where they aren’t that good. Although, he did think the Thai was hard on him at Turn 1 but he knows it is part of racing and not malious.
“I mean, I was alongside,” said Norris. “I think he knew I was there. So he definitely got off the brakes and centered in a bit harder than he normally did. And yeah, if I tried to say on the inside for turn two, then there would have been a crash, and we probably would have done a Max and Lewis [from 2021].
“So yeah, I think it was fair, we race fair. He did as well. He pushed me completely off in Turn 1. Did you know how hard you stepped on the brakes in Turn 2 and I was like ‘this guy’s playing Mario Kart right now’. Of course, you have to be elbows out sometimes. And he did that. He did a good race,” summed up Norris.
Here’s Lewis Hamilton apologising Oscar Piastri
Here’s Lando Norris on partnering Max Verstappen
