Lando Norris satisfied after F1 Brazil GP weekend where he managed to stretch his points lead, as he and Andrea Stella dwell into strategy and tyres.
It was a straight up weekend for McLaren’s Norris in the end in F1 Brazil GP, where he managed to streak out 24 points gap to teammate and title rival Oscar Piastri. The Brit seemed on-song from the get go, but the Australian wasn’t far off initially on Friday.
But as the weekend progressed, Piastri faced issues on the soft compound, while Norris had Andrea Kimi Antonelli to fend off rather than the Australian. While the Italian hustled the Brit in the sprint, it wasn’t the same in the F1 grand prix, where he stretched out a good lead over the rest of the field.
“Well, I’ve been pretty satisfied the whole weekend, honestly,” said Norris. “It’s been a great day, a great weekend, all-in-all. I’d say challenging. It’s not been completely straightforward. It’s still been difficult out on track, but that makes it better. I think it was just a well-executed race: good start, good pit stops, good strategy, decent pace.
“I wouldn’t say the pace was quite as good as what I would have liked today, so a few things to look into, but otherwise, every session that I needed to be on top, I was. And that’s why I flew to Brazil. So yeah, very happy. I mean, I think everyone… We’re drivers, so we’re always going to complain about something! The car balance was difficult. I’m sure the others will say the same.
“But it’s a realistic thing to use. In terms of when I was a bit happier with the car balance last weekend, we won by 30 seconds. This weekend, we only won by 10 and Max was coming at us quite quickly. So yeah, the pace was not on another level and we set our standards high, as a team, as we rightly should. So to win by 10 seconds—I’m going to sound like an idiot saying it—but yeah, we just wanted a bit more.
“I still had to fight the car a lot to win by those 10 seconds. So, just a little bit trickier than what I would have liked. But I’m still very happy with how the weekend’s gone, of course, and I’m very proud of the whole team and what they’ve been able to give me,” summed up Norris, who noted that the medium tyre was certainly the better one than soft on which he struggled.
He noted of some struggle in the final stint because the medium tyre was not new. “Not as good [on soft],” said Norris. “Even the last stint was not quite as strong. I thought the first stint was very, very good. But that was also the time I was on the most, let’s say, relative tyre to everyone. I think my used set of Mediums at the end was like seven, eight laps used, so not as nice as, say, a second set of new. But yeah, I think the pace on the Medium all weekend has been very good.
“The pace on the Softs—alright. Pace on the Hards—I don’t really know because I never used them. So there’s always little things. We’re always looking, as a team, to see where we can do better, what can we improve on, especially when you’re fighting for wins and for championships. You’ve got to look for everything. So that’s what we’re trying to do. I definitely had preferred feelings of the Medium, but we’ll see what we can do next time out,” summed up Norris.
Team boss Stella had some worries from Max Verstappen and Red Bull, especially given the new tyres the Dutchman had at his disposal. Even though he was on the soft compound on his final stint, it was still fresh on rubbered track and low fuel. He backed the team’s choice to pit the second time, which kind of made McLaren’s left easier to a certain extent.
“First of all, I was hoping so because it made our life a little bit easier,” said Stella to media. “But jokes apart, the level of degradation was very high and at some stage I think the tyres just ran out of rubber. I think they knew at Red Bull that it would have been quite a significant gamble to go to the end with the same set. And considering the fact that they had a new soft to put on, I think that was the right thing to do.
“And I think staying on the point of Red Bull, they definitely took advantage of having new tyres, new medium, new medium, new soft. But at the same time they showed a performance and a pace in the race that is meaningful that without the situation yesterday in qualifying, I think Verstappen could have been there for the victory,” summed up Stella.
Here’s race start: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-sao-paulo-grand-prix-polesitter-norris-leads-away-from-antonelli-on-the-race-start.1848333750055262302
Here’s re-start: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-sao-paulo-grand-prix-leclerc-out-and-piastri-up-to-p2-after-dramatic-restart.1848334755685601334
Here’s Lando Norris post win: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-sao-paulo-grand-prix-lando-norris-celebrates-his-seventh-victory-of-the-season.1848343743240305591
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