Racing
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Lando Norris headed to Indianapolis after McLaren’s Canadian Grand Prix gamble collapsed into a retirement, using the trip to move on from a zero-point weekend while insisting the strategy call itself was understandable.
McLaren put Norris on intermediate tyres at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, and for one lap the decision looked inspired. Starting third, he jumped into the lead and pulled out a gap of around two seconds by the end of the opening lap. But the expected rain never arrived, the track continued to dry, and the advantage quickly disappeared as Norris dropped back through the order.
His race then ended with gearbox trouble, capping what became a pointless afternoon for McLaren.
Norris did not blame the team for taking the risk. “Probably just on the warm-up lap, I think the rain already stopped a little bit by then, so, yeah, it was the wrong decision in hindsight,” Norris said. He added that there were “valid reasons” for making the call and said: “I'm happy we went for something and stuck to it. It doesn't work out sometimes, that's the way it is, so we take it on the chin, and we learn from it.”
He also pointed to how much grip the intermediates gave him in the opening phase, when he cleared the field immediately. Norris said the early lead showed the choice was not baseless, even if the conditions shifted against McLaren almost at once.
After leaving Montreal, Norris travelled roughly 800 miles to Indianapolis, where he met former McLaren team-mate Daniel Ricciardo and IndyCar driver Conor Daly after the Indy 500. Daly posted a photo on Instagram with the caption: “Just a couple guys celebrating the Indy500 @DanielRicciardo @Lando.” Ricciardo was attending the event as a fan for the first time.
The result in Canada left Norris fifth in the drivers’ standings on 58 points after five rounds, while McLaren remained third in the constructors’ championship with 106 points, making the cost of the failed tyre call and subsequent retirement more significant as the season develops.