Lando Norris explains why the McLaren car does not suit his driving strengths. He also mentions that he does not expect McLaren to have a similar performance as they did at the Silverstone race in the upcoming Hungarian Grand Prix.
Lando Norris of McLaren expressed his dissatisfaction with the MCL60 car, stating that it still does not match his preferred driving style, despite recent improvements.
McLaren has performed exceptionally well in recent Grands Prix, achieving impressive results after introducing significant updates to their car. Lando Norris secured a fourth-place finish in the Styrian hills and then went on to finish second at his home race, holding off Lewis Hamilton. His teammate, Oscar Piastri, also had a strong performance, finishing fourth.
The upgrade package has not improved the handling of the MCL60, forcing Norris to drive in a compromised manner.
“You have to drive it quite one way but it’s also a way that I don’t want to drive or like to drive,” Norris explained at the Hungaroring.
“I don’t like to drive the car the way that I have to drive it now. I feel like it isn’t to my strengths at all.
“I want to be able to carry minimum speed and U a corner and the last thing I can do in the world now is U a corner.
“I have to V the corner more than ever and I’ve never been the biggest fan of doing that and I don’t like it that much.
“Basically the car only likes to go in a straight line, and it doesn’t even go very quick in a straight line either.
“But we’re very good in straight-line braking which is why we’re so quick in the wet at times. I wouldn’t say we’re quick in the wet as a general note, we’re quicker in the wet when braking is a big key like in Monaco – it builds tyre temperature, builds confidence – that’s when we’re quick but we’re not actually quick in the corners when it’s wet.
“There are certain things that allow us to be competitive. Just to be able to have scope to do different lines and drive in different ways. If the wind changes, if conditions change, different fuel loads, tyre degradation we still always have to drive in one specific way and it’s not one that I currently like, it’s one that I’ve had to adapt to.
“Even last year, it still changes every year, you have to adapt a lot as a driver and far away from the car I want to be able to drive.”
McLaren’s impressive performance at Silverstone saw their drivers Norris and Piastri securing second and third positions on the grid. They maintained their strong position before the Safety Car intervention, which unfortunately prevented Piastri from potentially achieving his first F1 podium finish.
Norris doubts McLaren’s ability to replicate their strong performance from two weeks ago at the Northamptonshire track, given the contrasting nature of the slow-speed corners at the Hungaroring this weekend.
“No matter what the outlook of it all is, we’re not very good in the slow-speed [corners],” Norris said.
“I guess we’re not terrible if you fully focus on slow speed, if you look at Monaco we’re usually not too bad in Monaco.
“I guess when you have to start making compromises there are much bigger wins for us by performing well in high speed than focusing so much on the low speed.
“I guess we’re not bad here, if you look at last year it was not a bad weekend for us with a car we struggled a lot with at the beginning of the season. I still want to be hopeful but I doubt it’s going to be as good as Silverstone as there are no high-speed [corners].
“I think there are still going to be some tracks that are bad for us, I don’t think this is a bad track for us…I think we will have bigger tests of how bad is it going to get in some other tracks that are coming up. I think it will be a good test mainly because we have no high speed.
“It will be a better test of where we stand. I think the last two tracks have made us look better than where we stand over the longevity of a whole season.”
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