McLaren made what looked like an obvious attempt to trick Red Bull into pulling Max Verstappen in for an early pit stop during the Singapore Grand Prix.
A radio exchange in which race engineer Will Joseph first told Lando Norris to “box to overtake Verstappen”, then gave him a last-second instruction to “stay out” was shown on the world feed during the race.
However the coverage did not show a significant conversation on the next lap, when McLaren gave Norris the option to pit. He didn’t take it.
Did that cost him a realistic chance to ‘undercut’ Verstappen – or was it always going to be too risky?
Lap 17: The ‘obvious fake’
By lap 17 of the Singapore Grand Prix Norris was almost within the one-second DRS range of second-placed Verstappen ahead of him. Red Bull would clearly have to pit their driver soon, and they were close to having enough of a gap over Fernando Alonso and Isack Hadjar behind them to be able to pit Verstappen and bring him out ahead of them.
The television coverage of the race showed Norris being told “box to overtake Verstappen” as he rounded turn 10. These messages always involve a degree of lag, and Norris was in fact given the instruction three corners earlier. McLaren cancelled the instruction for Norris to pit at the last possible moment, as he accelerated out of turn 17 towards the pit lane entrance.
As McLaren gave the initial instruction so early, had they given the game away and handed Red Bull the opportunity to pit Verstappen? It’s hard to imagine they seriously believed Red Bull would be duped by such an early call, particularly as they and other teams have done it before.
More likely, McLaren were putting Norris ‘on standby’ to pit, ensuring they were prepared to take advantage of any sudden opportunity ahead. Had Alonso suddenly slowed and delayed Hadjar, for example, they could have pounced.
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| Lap: 17/62 NOR: 1’37.177 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Joseph | Approaching turn seven And Lando, box to overtake Verstappen, box to overtake Verstappen. |
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| Norris | Confirm. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Joseph | Strat six, strat six. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Joseph | Approaching pit entry Stay out, stay out. |
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Lap 18: Norris’s choice
McLaren did not repeat their “box to overtake” message on lap 18, but they told Norris he had an opportunity to pit if he was willing to take a risk. This, as Joseph explained, was that he would come out behind Alonso and have to overtake the Aston Martin.
“If we want to try, we can, you’ve got to be onboard with it,” Joseph told Norris as he accelerated out of turn 14. Norris had 20 seconds left to make his mind up before he drove past the pit lane entrance.
Should Norris have come in? Passing is difficult at Singapore and as Norris would have been racing Alonso for track position he would not have had the benefit of blue flags.
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However some drivers have successfully passed cars immediately after pitting in Singapore. Lewis Hamilton used this strategy last year: he emerged from the pits behind Kevin Magnussen and passed the Haas driver on his out-lap at turn 16, losing little time.
No two situations are alike, however. Hamilton had the benefit of switching to the medium compound tyre, whereas Norris had to switch to the hards in Singapore.
There were other disincentives at play for Norris. He needs to gain points on Oscar Piastri more than he needs to take them off Verstappen, and by staying out he minimised his risk to his team mate. The same thinking appeared to be at play when, later in the race, he opted to pit before his team mate – significantly, the exact opposite decision to the one he took at Monza, where a slow pit stop dropped him behind Piastri.
The fact his last two pit stops in previous races had been slow may also have played on Norris’s mind. His attempt to jump ahead of other cars via the pits in Baku failed.
Whatever his reasoning, Norris declined McLaren’s option to pit early, and stayed out another lap.
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| Lap: 18/62 NOR: 1’37.444 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Joseph | So Lando gap to Alonso 20.7, then Hadjar 23.8. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Joseph | Approaching turn 10 So Lando, we could do it, we’d have to come through Alonso and then four cars around a Safety Car window on us. |
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| Joseph | Approaching turn 14 If we want to try, we can, you’ve got to be on board with it. Norris passes the pit entry |
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Lap 19: Missed opportunity
On the next lap Norris indicated he was willing to consider pitting and coming out behind Alonso. However now it was too late. Red Bull brought Verstappen in, having correctly judged he was far enough ahead to emerge in front of Alonso, which he managed even with a slightly slow pit stop.
| Lap: 19/62 NOR: 1’37.559 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Joseph | Approaching turn seven And now only two, sorry, three cars in our Safety Car window will almost be two, strat six. |
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| Norris | Approaching turn eight Yeah, confirm, let’s do it. |
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| Joseph | Alonso’s doing 38.0, we will have to pass quickly to make this work. If we want to do it, we’ll box to overtake this lap. Verstappen pits |
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| Lap: 20/62 NOR: 1’37.016 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Joseph | Okay, let’s use the pace then. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Joseph | Lando, to be clear we just extend now, build Safety Car windows. There’s no incentive to pit right now. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Joseph | So this is plan A, target lap, plan A target lap. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Norris | Yeah, confirm. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Onto the ‘overcut’
That left Norris with no choice but to run as long as he could in an effort to attack Verstappen later in the race with fresher tyres. It was always going to be a long shot, and McLaren couldn’t run much longer anyway without putting themselves at risk from Leclerc behind:
| Lap: 21/62 NOR: 1’36.638 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Joseph | And this pace to Russell is good, we’re quicker than him or matching him everywhere. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 22/62 NOR: 1’36.688 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Joseph | And there are no consistent opportunities to your team mate. Reminder to drink. And Leclerc has just pitted. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 23/62 NOR: 1’36.810 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Joseph | Lando, we will have to follow the dash. So suggest just doing a little bit more li-co now. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 24/62 NOR: 1’36.959 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Joseph | Opportunity turn 13, as you talked about pre-race. Last lap, Russell did a 37.1. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 25/62 NOR: 1’37.153 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Joseph | Lando, the gap to Oscar is 4.7. He’s going to have to pit soon to cover Leclerc. Are you willing to let Oscar pit the lap before you? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 26/62 NOR: 1’42.705 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Norris | Yep. Er, no, I wouldn’t. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Joseph | Okay, Lando, strat six, please, strat six. We are box this lap. We’re fitting a hard, we’re coming down one. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Joseph | Box this lap, box this lap. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 27/62 NOR: 1’51.946 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Joseph | This will be out lap three, stint two, out lap three, stint two. Russell’s approaching turn one and then Max will be ahead of us. He pushed his tyres hard so that could be an opportunity. Lando, whilst we’re bringing in the tyres, let’s just focus on following the dash a little bit. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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