Lando Norris has given his initial thoughts on his new F1 challenger, the McLaren MCL39 after his first day of F1 pre-season testing.
McLaren and Lando Norris enter F1 pre-season testing as the favourites for both titles in 2025, having won the Constructors’ Championship in 2024.
The team launched the MCL39 at Silverstone earlier in the month, surprising many of its rivals in the process.
The momentum at McLaren continued to build during the first day of pre-season testing, Lando Norris topped the evening session timesheets.
As reported by motorsport.com, Norris has now revealed his first thoughts on the MCL39 after his time in the car.
A ‘similar’ feel for Lando Norris
Delivering his verdict, Norris said the car feels close to last year’s championship winning car, stating the team was not focusing on performance.
“It feels similar – that’s what I said in the interviews earlier. It feels similar, which is a good start,” he said. “That’s where we wanted to start, at least.
“Nothing’s been majorly addressed. Let’s say it’s not like that much has changed from what we’ve tried to do – we’ve just tried to make the car quicker all around and add more load. It’s a very simple way of looking at it, honestly.
“We still want to try and focus on some areas more than others. Like you’re saying, we’ve struggled a bit more with the rear than what we would have liked over yesterday and today. But it’s still early days. We’re not looking at absolute outright performance.
“If we went into qualifying now, I’m sure we would change some things. But a lot of today and yesterday has been just ticking the boxes. It’s not the fun bit.”
Challenging for wins from the start the aim for the MCL39
Norris revealed that he expects to get a true indicator of performance tomorrow. He stated that fighting for wins from the start of the season is the main goal for McLaren, a weakness in past years.
“The fun will come this afternoon and tomorrow morning. Along those lines, I think if we want to improve anything at the minute, it’s still the rear of the car. The more you can improve the rear, the more everything just gets better.
“But the rest of it feels correct and it feels like it’s in the same ballpark. That’s what we want. I don’t think we’re expecting to be a big step ahead of anyone.
“We’re expecting to be tied alongside the guys to my right. But if we’re just there fighting from the beginning, that’s our target. Considering how the last few years have been, if we can just be there fighting from the off, then we’ll be happy.”
Feature Image Credit: @McLarenF1 on X
