From stars to rags in seconds. This is the feeling that Lando Norris he tried immediately after the checkered flag of the Grand Prix of Sochi of 2021. The fault of a wicked choice, that of having tried to defend the first place by not returning to the pits to mount the intermediate tires but insisting on slicks, when in Sochi the rain was becoming more and more intense. A fatal mistake for the English driver’s dreams of glory, who saw his first victory in Formula 1 vanish after winning his first pole position the day before in qualifying. For the Woking team it would have been an amazing ‘double’ after the one-two scored with Daniel Ricciardo in Monza, and instead the patatrac in Sochi was the beginning of the end: from that moment on, Ferrari recovered more and more points, easily making the fight for third place in the constructors’ championship its own.
A year later, Norris still has some regrets. But he used this mistake to improve as a driver and as a team man: “It had been a while since I had been driving a race, there was a lot of pressure. But it’s not like the pressure has driven me out of my mind. I think I managed the position I was in well. But unfortunately, having to make those tire decisions while leading a race was a difficult situation“, The Briton told RaceFans. “There have been many times when Mercedes, Ferrari or Red Bull have made mistakes. Just think of what happened to Charles Leclerc, and unlike him I wasn’t even fighting for the championship. Everyone expects us to never make mistakes, but it happens to everyone, including pilots. It can be tough at times, but I think it has helped me and the team make better decisions in the future“.
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