“It’s Happened to Lewis…”: Lando Norris Okay With Making Risky F1 Blunders Because of the Legendary Hamilton

It is hard to gauge whether Lando Norris has been lucky or unlucky in his career. When he debuted in 2019, his fellow mate George Russell was in a backmarker team and could not even score points. While Norris ended up at McLaren in a decent midfield outfit. The rise of Lando’s stature at Woking has been amazing. Although, the stagnation of being in the midfield every year ain’t ideal for his championship ambitions. To top that, Norris is yet to win an F1 race, which just rubs salt in the letdowns of his F1 career so far.

Nevertheless, Norris feels these horrific experiences have been a part of every driver’s journey, even for the legendary Lewis Hamilton. Back when his fellow Briton was at McLaren, Lando recalled how even Lewis experienced torrid moments like him.

According to the latest GQ magazine feature, Norris cited how he feels about retiring a car from any race due to an issue. He said, “Generally if it’s smoke [in the car], it’s something quite bad. If it’s on a race day, and through no fault of my own the engine lets go when everyone’s put so much work in… yeah, it’s such a big letdown to not be able to finish the race.”

Norris felt okay to make some risky blunders at his early career stage, given how even Hamilton did some back in his McLaren days. Everyone remembers the infamous China pitlane incident in 2007, which arguably lost Lewis his maiden world title.

Lando added, “That’s part of racing. It happens to every driver at some point. It’s happened to Lewis [Hamilton], it’s happened to Lando [Norris].”

Read More: Years Ago, Lando Norris Was Tipped to Be the Next Lewis Hamilton- What Held Him Back From Living Up to the Honor?

Lando probably would be the most disappointed about his 2021 Russian GP blunder, which lost him his maiden win. Apparently, it also handed Lewis his 100th win. Still, it may not be the best feeling for the young Briton.

How Lando Norris could have gotten his First F1 win in Russia

It was an odd weekend at the Sochi Autodrom in 2021. The championship contenders were on the back foot ahead of the Russian GP race start. Max Verstappen had a grid penalty due to power unit components, which made him start at the back of the grid. While Lewis Hamilton had a bad qualifying.

This put Lando Norris in pole position and a contender to take his maiden F1 win. The McLaren driver fought tooth and nail with his former teammate Carlos Sainz for the race lead. For the majority of the race, Norris looked set to make it successive wins for McLaren after Daniel Ricciardo won in Italy, a couple of weeks earlier.

Though, when the skies opened up to rain, Norris made the big blunder of staying out on slick tires. Everyone behind him did the smart thing to pit quickly for intermediate tires. But, Lando denied McLaren’s suggestion of pitting for Inters. This just kept him stranded in damp greasy conditions, as Hamilton’s Mercedes closed the gap in P2.

It was a terrible sight to watch Norris sliding off the track as Hamilton took the race lead. If only Norris could have listened to his team’s suggestion to pit for intermediate tires. It could have been a completely different picture. The Briton is quite skilled to drive well in the wet but just could not take the right call in Sochi that afternoon.

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Perhaps, it was Lando’s young age that pushed an impulsive decision. Still, he would have learned a lot from the same, as Lewis did from China, in 2007. But can Norris replicate what Hamilton has done since then? Let us know your thoughts on how far Lando Norris may go in F1.