Lando Norris is still struggling with his car in the Austin qualifying session: the world champion explains the current problem with the McLaren MCL40 – and what might have been possible
World Champion Lando Norris had already made no secret of the fact after the Singapore Grand Prix that the McLaren MCL40 is a diva. Following qualifying (full session report) in Austin, which Norris finished in only eighth place, the Briton once again railed against his car.
“We try to make improvements every time. We’re working on the car and bringing in updates,” says a perplexed Norris. “I don’t know, maybe the car just isn’t fast enough.” Nevertheless, the McLaren driver “always holds out hope that I’ll manage an absolutely superb lap and end up in first place.”
Above all, however, the set-up continues to be a headache for Norris. “If you make an improvement in three corners, suddenly three other corners become a nightmare,” says the reigning world champion, frustrated. “It’s simply impossible. With this car, it’s currently impossible to achieve the perfection I’m striving for.”
“It’s a real struggle: I want pole position, but I have to tell myself that I should be content with fifth place – and I really don’t want that at all.” Although Norris has already secured pole position three times this year, third-best starting positions have been the best he’s managed in three of the last four races.
Lando Norris believes: P2 would have been possible
On the other hand, after qualifying in Austin, Norris spoke of a “great” car that was, above all, “very strong in terms of pace”. But “it was incredibly difficult to drive – probably the most difficult car I’ve ever had to drive in my life”, reported the McLaren driver.
The Briton believes the MCL40 would have been “good enough” for second place on the grid. “So I should have been in P2, but I ended up in P8,” recalls Norris, taking responsibility himself: “So I clearly did a very poor job.”
Much like pole-sitter Kimi Antonelli and Red Bull driver Max Verstappen, the world champion also struggled with the conditions in Q3. “I simply had the worst wind I’ve ever experienced,” he reports. “I braked earlier, braked less hard – and still the wheels locked up. Just bad luck, that’s all.”
At least the bumps, which even cause physical discomfort for some drivers, pose no problems for the MCL40. “Not at all,” confirms Norris. “The bumps are on the straights, not in the corners. So that’s no problem at all for the car.”
Oscar Piastri explains McLaren’s current problem
Team-mate Oscar Piastri will start Sunday’s race just one place ahead of Norris. “There seemed to be potential in the car; we both felt that,” says the Australian, who is also frustrated with his starting position. “But whether you can actually tap into that potential or not makes a difference of half a second.”
“It was extremely difficult to get that lap time out of the car; I didn’t manage it at all,” says Piastri. “When one of us really pushed to the limit, we couldn’t keep the car on the track. So it was definitely a huge challenge.”
The McLaren driver is convinced that “we’re a few tenths of a second off the pace of Mercedes and Red Bull”. As a driver, he explains, you then try to make up that deficit somehow and take particular risks. In the end, however, that doesn’t always pay off.
“Generally speaking, you have to constantly push this car to the absolute limit – it’s like walking a tightrope,” says Piastri. “On a track like this, with so many combinations of corners and uneven surfaces, even the slightest lapse in concentration is enough for everything to go completely wrong.”