McLaren victims of hindsight in Abu Dhabi - Norris

Lando Norris has conceded his McLaren team were victims of hindsight after running with a below-par strategy in Sunday's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

It resulted in McLaren failing to overcome Alpine in the battle for fourth in the F1 constructors' championship at the season finale despite outscoring its rival, albeit finishing 14 points shy overall.

Despite beating Esteban Ocon by taking the chequered flag in sixth, Norris revealed his belief the Alpine driver had enjoyed the stronger strategy by completing his latter two stints on the hard tyres rather than reverting to mediums.

“I’m very happy it wasn’t P7," said Norris. "I’ve finished there enough this year, but I'm really happy, actually. It was close, it was a tough race.

"The pace was good but Esteban [Ocon] was a lot quicker over the last few laps, almost two seconds a lap quicker as I just shod my mediums too quickly.

“The medium-hard-hard seemed to be the better strategy than the medium-hard-medium we were on, so maybe in hindsight, we didn’t make the best decision with that, but that’s a hindsight thing rather than something we knew before the weekend."

Norris, however, backed McLaren for its other decisions, joking his ability to set the fastest lap of the race "must mean we were the quickest car out there".

“From my side and the whole team’s side, we’ve done a very good job the whole season, honestly," added Norris. "We just haven’t had a car good enough to show a lot more than what we have done.

“But the work ethic and the improvements that we have made, I’m very happy with, so there has definitely been a lot of positives.”

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