McLaren and Norris lacking ‘trust’ in fight for F1 wins

McLaren is lacking a sense of intra-team trust when it comes to strategy decisions while competing for race wins, according to Bernie Collins.

The ex-Aston Martin head of race strategy highlighted the concern while speaking on the Sky Sports F1 podcast ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Collins reflected on the recent race from Silverstone with a switch to the Soft compound at the end of the race botching Lando Norris' chance for a race win.

Norris' team-mate Oscar Piastri was also placed on the back foot after McLaren opted not to double stack their cars earlier in the race as the track transitioned from dry to wet conditions.

Mercedes won the race with Lewis Hamilton, with Collins highlighting the Brackley-based team, as well as Red Bull, has the upper hand on strategy calls compared to McLaren.

“Mercedes and Red Bull appear to have the edge in terms of making consistently good decisions as a team,” Collins said.

“The Mercedes one was a mistake from the pit wall to call him in and they got away with it because of Lewis. As a team, the decisions are really good, the same for Max and GP [Pianpiero Lambiase] for example.

“I think the build of the relationship with Lando Norris is pretty new and there just doesn't seem to be that trust there. 

“So I don't really think it's McLaren not having the experience of it because the midfield battles of making strong decisions is really tough when you're fighting for the points at the end [of the top 10]. 

“It’s as big a difference as the win versus P2 in some ways.”

McLaren and Norris too 'polite' to each other

McLaren has already secured a race win this year, with Norris prevailing at the Miami Grand Prix.

As it aims to usurp Red Bull in the constructors' championship, Collins has backed McLaren to improve itself by analysing where it has made mishaps of late, suggesting it is “too polite” in its communication.

“All these teams are really good at the analysis they do, looking back and every decision so this should be better. I'm a bit surprised,” she said.

“I think there's been a few personnel changes from a strategy side and so they just need to get a bit more trust.

“One of the things in strategy, if they had made the decision in that final pitstop, what tyre they were on and it was wrong, then you go back review it later.

“But that would have been better than having this hesitation. 

“Lewis is happy to call out the [Mercedes] pit wall, the pit wall is happy to call out Lewis. They're almost a bit less polite with each other.

“For Lando and McLaren, it's a bit more polite like 'what do you think?' or 'you go first' kind of thing. We can't have that in F1, it needs to be 'this is my opinion and I'm sticking to it'.”