Jolyon Palmer shared his perspective on the incident involving the two McLaren drivers in the closing stages of the Canadian GP, and he didn’t mince words when it came to Lando Norris’s costly mistake. Analyzing the incident from both
Norris’s onboard camera and the aerial view, it’s clear that the British driver attempted to dive into a gap that simply wasn’t there, clipping the wall on the left and coming to a halt just a few meters later.
Oscar Piastri was fortunate to avoid a puncture to his left rear tyre, managing to bring his MCL-39 home in fourth place.
“This is just a completely wrong judgment by Lando'', Palmer said when starting his analysis.
''First, he turns to the left, where there obviously is no room for a
car on that side. And then he decides not to back down. It
seems like a desperate attempt, as if he hoped that space
would somehow appear. But in the end, he just hits the back of his
teammate''.
''There was really absolutely no chance that this overtaking maneuvre was ever going
to succeed''.
The driver with number four on his car's action is, according to the former
F1 driver, totally out of proportion with the rest of Norris's racing weekend.
“I think he was faster than Piastri all weekend, but he
failed to capitalize on it in qualifying. And then, when he got his chance in the race, he made another big judgment error,” the former Formula
1 driver continued during his analysis.
Palmer does not have sweet words for Norris
At the end of his analysis, Palmer drew a tough
conclusion for the driver who last Sunday didn't make it intact across the
finish line: “Time for Lando to get his head back in the game. The difference between him and his teammate is now 22 points''.
''The fact
that Oscar did finish and scored important points will give McLaren some
breathing room''.
This likely keeps the team from major tension or
an internal crisis: ''McLaren thus left Canada with just twelve points.
They could have had ten more''.
This article was written in collaboration with Esteban Den Toom