Lando Norris has confirmed why he and McLaren struggled for pace during sprint qualifying for the F1 Chinese GP.
The only practice session of the weekend prophesied a repeat of McLaren’s performance in Australia, with Norris quickest and team-mate Oscar Piastri in third.
However, McLaren’s advantage began to ebb away during sprint qualifying, with both cars off the front row.
McLaren opted for two flying laps rather than a warm-up and a single flying lap, which compromised their performance.
Norris made a mistake on his first lap, and aborted his second, lining up sixth for tomorrow’s sprint race.
Speaking in Parc-Ferme after sprint qualifying, Norris admitted his error, revealing his struggles with the MCL39’s unpredictability.
“I made a mistake,” said Norris.” I locked up in the last corner. But we’re just struggling a bit more now. Just not quick enough, simply. Struggling a lot with the car.
“It’s more on me rather than the car. I can’t make the car perfect. But, no, this was me just trying to just push a bit too much.
“So [I] just need to back off a little bit and not try to push too much. I think the car’s still good and in a good window, maybe not good enough for pole. But we can definitely go forward.”
Tailwinds and unpredictable handling compromise Lando Norris
Elaborating on his issues, Norris said the car had unpredictable handling, with wind causing wheel locking.
“Our difficulties that we’ve been struggling with showed a lot more today. So nothing more than that, honestly. Just too many mistakes, it is just too difficult of a car to drive,” he said.
“I think just throughout the day we’ve been struggling a bit with the front locking and struggling a lot in the last corner with all the tailwinds. So it is kind of a lot more aligned with Bahrain [pre-season testing]. Just a lot windier when the wind’s blowing, then we struggle a lot more.
“So I think both myself and Oscar struggled more, clearly me more than him. So, yeah, just pushing a bit hard to try and make up for not quite being quick enough.”
Team-mate Oscar Piastri revealed after the session McLaren tried a different run plan for SQ3, resulting in the Australian starting third tomorrow.
“I think we were probably quick at the wrong points of it, unfortunately,” he reflected.
SQ1 and SQ2 felt good, and then SQ3, we tried something a bit different and went out much earlier and tried two laps, which I’m not sure was the best thing in the end, but I think it’s something we need to have a look at.
“I think the pace in the car is still very strong and I’m still confident to fight from third. It has been difficult, I think, with the track surface, it’s got a lot of grip, but it’s very peaky and I think it’s been pretty tough all day to just keep on top of the car.
“I honestly think we did a good job of trying to tame it for sprint qualifying, just maybe got the run plan a bit wrong.
“So it’s been an interesting challenge. The grip has been a lot better than last season, which is nice, and I think there’s some things we can do better tomorrow.”
Feature Image Credit: @McLarenF1 on X
