Lando Norris after his crash: « I’m disappointed with myself, I’ve let the team down »

The leader of the Formula 1 World Championship, Lando Norris, did not hold back after hitting the barriers during the qualifying session of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, an incident that will force him to start from the tenth position on the grid this Sunday.

A costly mistake in Q3

After dominating the Q2 session, the McLaren driver seemed in an excellent position to fight for pole position. But everything fell apart at the beginning of his first flying lap in Q3, when he lost control of his car exiting turn 4, sliding over the kerb of turn 5 before hitting the wall.

“I don’t know what happened. I didn’t have time to analyze or see. Just a mistake, I guess. I don’t know what I could have done,” said Norris to reporters after the session. “I was quite comfortable, quite happy until then, the car was performing well. So disappointed, it obviously made my life and that of everyone in the team much more complicated and difficult because the guys have a big job trying to fix everything.”

Immediately after the accident, Norris did not hesitate to criticize himself harshly on the radio, calling himself an idiot. A reaction he fully owned: “It’s logical. I agree with what I said. I should be fighting for pole and, especially on a lap in Q1 [sic], I shouldn’t be taking stupid risks like I seem to have done. I’m not going to be proud, I’m not going to be happy. I’m disappointed in myself, I let the team down,” he added candidly.

Difficulties adapting to the McLaren 2025

Andrea Stella, director of the McLaren team, explained that the accident reflected Norris’s difficulties in adapting to the behavior of this year’s car: « In Q3, when Lando tries to scrape off a few extra milliseconds, the car doesn’t respond as he expects. It’s a behavior that surprises him. Today, he was surprised. The car understeered a bit in turn four, ended up on the outer curb, and this outer curb can be quite unforgiving. », explained Stella.

According to the Italian director, the responsibility partly falls on the team: « It’s an episode that starts with some of the work we’ve done on the car. It made the car faster overall, but I think it took something away from Lando in terms of the car’s predictability when he’s pushing it to the limit. So it’s the team’s responsibility to try to improve the car and correct this behavior. Because we want Lando to be confident, comfortable, and able to push the car. »

A difficult climb ahead

Starting tenth on a street circuit where overtaking is particularly difficult represents a significant challenge for Norris, who currently holds a slim three-point lead over his teammate Oscar Piastri in the world championship.

« I’m going to see my engineers and apologize and see what we can do for [Sunday]. Try to set up a good plan, but we’re going to need a bit of luck. It’s so difficult, it’s almost impossible to overtake here, so I’m not expecting anything magical, but we have a good car. », explained the British driver.

Norris tempers his ambitions for the race: « Reaching the top five or six, I would say I would be happy. Our car wasn’t on pole, our pace was clearly not better than Max’s, even George [Russell] is not that far off. So I think getting close to them is not very realistic, but trying to reach the top five is probably our goal. » He did, however, emphasize that to achieve this, he will need « a bit of luck ».

Verstappen and Piastri on the lookout

Meanwhile, Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri secured first and second places on the grid, ideally positioning themselves to surpass Norris in the championship standings. Piastri would take the lead in the championship for the first time in his career if he won the race, regardless of Norris’s finishing position. As for Verstappen, the reigning champion, he would overtake the Briton if he won and Norris finished third or lower.

Despite his disappointment, Norris strives to remain positive: “That’s life. It rarely happens, so it’s difficult. But we have to look on the bright side and hope we can have a good race,” he said philosophically. It remains to be seen if the McLaren driver will manage to limit the damage on this Jeddah circuit, known for its speed and 27 turns that make overtaking particularly perilous, even with a competitive car.