How McLaren's communication was key to Monza success

Ricciardo, McLaren, ItalianGP — Photo: © LAT Images

Italian Grand Prix

How McLaren's communication was key to Monza success

Lando Norris urged Daniel Ricciardo to go faster after mid-race safety car

Sam Hall

Tuesday 14 September 2021 17:10

Andreas Seidl has claimed the communication between the McLaren pit wall and its drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris was crucial in scoring a sensational Italian Grand Prix one-two.

McLaren became the first team this season to record such a result, its first for 11 years as a dominant Ricciardo led home Norris at Monza.

Yet that was not without a degree of consternation on Norris' part as he was heard over the radio calling on his team to give Ricciardo the hurry up as Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas closed in behind the Briton.

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Reflecting on the actions required, Seidl said: "We need to understand we prepared this race very well from the strategy side, with both drivers, so the team did a sensational job there.

"In the race, it was simply good communication with the drivers and the pit wall in order to understand that in every single point of the race, is the pace in hand or not, because we needed that information, in the end, to tell Daniel again to go faster."

After receiving the message to increase his pace, Ricciardo responded and quickly pulled a gap on Norris.

With speed to spare at the end of the race, both drivers set their fastest laps on the final tour, with Ricciardo securing the point for being fastest overall, a fact that had escaped Seidl.

“Did we actually get the fastest lap?" queried Seidl at the time. When told that was the case, he added: "Okay. Good actually. Another point.

“We had two cars that had exactly the same pace. Both cars were in control of the pace at any point of the race.

"In the end, it was just important to manage the gaps between Daniel and Lando, make sure he [Norris] always had a tow.

“That is why all this communication was going backwards and forwards and that is why Lando wanted to show us ‘Look, let’s tell Daniel to push a bit more in order to be a bit more safe compared to the car behind’.

"That’s what we did. It was great to see how the team pulled it off.”