Lando Norris admitted McLaren got its tyre decision wrong during a chaotic 2026 F1 race in Malaysia, after the Briton eventually crossed the line in ninth place at Sepang.
Heavy rain caused a lengthy delay to the start before the field initially headed out on intermediate tyres. When the race eventually got underway, teams split their strategies as some drivers remained on intermediates while others, including Norris, opted for slicks.
The intermediate runners gained the advantage in the wet conditions, seeing Norris lead the dry runners around at the back in the opening 10 laps.
The McLaren driver recovered as conditions improved but could only finish ninth, while teammate Oscar Piastri took sixth after switching to intermediates before the standing start. He should have been P7 but went off the road under the Safety Car and dropped behind Lawson, Alonso, Hülkenberg and Lindblad, before gaining two of those spots back in the closing laps.
Norris admits slick choice felt like a risk
Reflecting on the decision to use slick tyres for the race start during the F1 weekend in Malaysia, Norris admitted that he knew the choice carried an element of risk given the conditions.
“I felt maybe a little bit of a risk, because a slick on a wet track is always a bit of a risk. There was enough people on it that kind of convinced me at the time that it was possibly going to be the right decision. The grid on the inter, when it was a similar kind of condition, it had so much grip, and my inter was completely shredded after one lap.”
Those unusual circumstances also complicated the decision. Teams and drivers entered the Malaysia weekend with little information about how the intermediate tyres would behave, as the 2026 cars had not previously run in wet conditions.
Lack of experience influenced McLaren’s decision
Norris explained that his experience on the intermediate during the earlier running had helped convince him that slicks would prove the stronger option when the race finally started.
However, the 26-year-old conceded after the race that the decision proved incorrect, while Piastri made the better call by heading to the pits for intermediates.
“Yeah, I was convinced that the slick would work better, but I think it was just the fact that we’ve never really been on the inter before. It made things, things just gone alot better than they should have in a way. If we would have used the inter ahead of this weekend, you know, maybe I would have been able to understand it more, but that convinced us, and it clearly convinced a lot of people. Yeah, obviously, Oscar [Piastri] probably made the right decision with Boxing, and we got it wrong today, that’s all.”
Norris ultimately salvaged two points with ninth place, but the result marked a difficult afternoon for McLaren as Piastri finished three positions further ahead in sixth.
