Norris told he's 'not ready' yet to be F1 champion

Lando Norris might have finished on the podium in his home race, the British Grand prix at Silverstone last week, but many felt he could have done even better - including Norris himself.

In a volatile event hit by ever-changing weather conditions, Norris was leading the race but left it a lap too late to change back to slick tyres on lap 39, handing Lewis Hamilton the whip hand.

A slow pit stop after an error hitting his marks in the pit box, and the wrong choice of soft tyres, also allowed Max Verstappen to spring a surprise counterattack in the closing laps and demote Norris to P3 at the chequered flag.

Even though McLaren accepted its share of the responsibility for a number of the mistakes on the day, Norris was clearly upset and blamed himself when talking to the media after the finish.

For former Formula 1 driver Ralf Schumacher, it was proof that Norris is not yet ready to battle with Verstappen on a regular basis for race wins, or to challenge for a world championship.

• Read also: Button warns Norris against excessive self-criticism

“Norris is not quite ready yet," the former Jordan, Williams, and Toyota driver said this week, although he offered some mitigating factors for why Norris hadn't been able to fully capitalise on the momentum from his maiden F1 win in May in Miami.

"That could also be due to the structure within the team," six-time race winner Schumacher suggested. “It could be because his engineer is not strong enough. That's always a very important person.

“As a driver you usually go into the race and you already know exactly what a tyre is capable of,” he explained. “The team knows that too. You have to give each other information."

Verstappen had made the choice to switch to hard tyres for his final stint while Norris opted for softs. "What happened? Someone drove into the pits earlier and does this and that with the tyres and then as a driver you can make the decision."

Another former F1 driver, ex-Red Bull star Mark Webber, also pin-pointed the tyre selection for the last stint of the race as a major reason for why Norris lost out on Sunday.

“He will be disappointed with the tyre decision, and going long in the box," the Channel 4 presenter said, adding that overshooting his box had cost Norris crucial seconds in the final service.

“It’s hard, but if you can present the car to the boys, that’s the first big psychological present for them under pressure at the British Grand Prix, to do the best job for him.

“When you steam through it’s really challenging. He was on the back foot then," Webber said, adding: “He will reflect on that. And he will, because he’s world class.”

His Channel 4 colleague Lee McKenzie agreed. “We are all realistic. He should have won, or at least been second. He should have won in Austria.

“I feel his disappointment. I’m sure McLaren feel disappointed. I can’t work out why they didn’t double stack, maybe they did not have the confidence," she said. “He should have won that race.”

As for Norris, he felt that the pit overshoot had been if little impact compared to the wrong choice of compound. "We threw it away in the final stop.

"But also I don’t think it was a lap. I think even if I boxed on the perfect lap, our decision to go on to the softs was the wrong one. Lewis still would have won no matter what."

Norris agreed that McLaren's decision not to double stack him and his team mate Oscar Piastri when the rain started had been another miscue. "Two calls from our side cost us everything today, so pretty pretty disappointing, especially here."

But if Norris - who remains P2 in the drivers standings behind Verstappen - needs any cheering up, he can listen to words of praise from former Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond who was at Silverstone to watch the race.

"You want drivers snapping at each other's heels," Hammond told RacingNews365.com at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this weekend. "He is fulfilling that role, and doing it incredibly well.

"He is young, energetic and hungry as hell," Hammond added, saying that the competition between Norris and Verstappen had reignited his interest in Formula 1, with his daughter also now a big fan of the drivers.

"I'm actually engaging with it at last," he said. "There's excitement and thrill in the racing and I am starting to realise how much more there is beyond what you immediately see on the track.

"Max is an astonishing talent," he added. "I love to see a natural driver. There's a degree to which people can learn and do it in training or practice, but then sometimes there is just natural talent that is there."

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter