McLaren is the Formula 1 team that has probably made the biggest leap in development over the course of the 2023 season. While the team didn’t have a single championship point to its name after the first two races, they are now regularly a podium candidate.
In the last two races in Singapore and Suzuka alone, they achieved a total of three podium places, including the first double podium in Japan in just over two years. This was last achieved at the Italian Grand Prix in September 2021.
The McLaren MCL60 is now a fast car, but according to Lando Norris, the really difficult task is now just beginning. Looking ahead, he explains: “A lot of it is little details that make a big difference.”
Norris admits: I now have more trust in the team
It’s now about “smaller details that make the driver a little happier than just making the car fast.” Because the car is now very fast, the main goal now is to make the car easier to drive for the drivers.
“But making the car a little more drivable, a little more rounded, is almost the most difficult task because it’s so difficult to do that without compromises,” explains Norris. In the past, McLaren has never really succeeded in doing this.
“It’s more of a juggling act than just adding things everywhere. The juggling act is very difficult to accomplish,” emphasizes Norris, who, however, explains in this context that he now trusts the team to solve this problem.
“After this year, I would say that I have more confidence than ever that the team can tackle the things that we want as drivers and actually start improving them,” says Norris, who admits that had not been the case in the past.
“In the last few years I would say I haven’t had that confidence because in the last four or five years [die gleichen Probleme mit dem Handling] had,” reports Norris. This is exciting because McLaren has recently repositioned itself in the technical area.
New McLaren wind tunnel impresses Norris
For example, head of technology James Key had to leave the team at the beginning of the year, and at the same time several new people were hired, some of whom had not yet started working in Woking. Nevertheless, Norris is already seeing improvements.
And in addition to staff, McLaren has also upgraded in terms of infrastructure. After previously using the old Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne since 2010, the completely new, dedicated wind tunnel was put into 100 percent operation in August.
“I had that [Windkanal], which we used before, never seen. It’s impressive what level of technology is today,” says Norris, emphasizing: “In pictures all you see is a pipe with a car in it. It’s much more complicated than that.”
One example is the numerous sensors in the wind tunnel. “This is actually a lot more impressive than you think: the level of precision required to make it usable in any way is quite impressive,” said Norris.
McLaren should therefore have the necessary tools to master what Norris calls “the most difficult task” in the coming months.