Lando Norris is practically McLaren’s life insurance in the 2022 Formula 1 season. Thanks to his 101 points, McLaren still has a chance of challenging Alpine for fourth place in the constructors’ championship, while teammate Daniel Ricciardo is also in his second year in Woking doesn’t seem to get along with the car.
But: Even Norris doesn’t necessarily like the behavior of the MCL36: “I don’t have the feeling that the car is doing what I want,” says the Brit to “auto motor und sport”. “This car is not made for my driving style. I had to adapt to it. I did that, but it still doesn’t feel natural to me.”
Norris’ problem: “I hate understeering cars!” But that’s exactly what the McLaren of the 2022 season is like. Normally, Norris likes to add a bit of wing to the front axle and tries to influence the mechanical balance in such a way that the car “greedily” steers, as he puts it – even if he might do so a little gets oversteer.
“I was always a driver who wanted an agile car. And then lived with the consequences that the car just slipped more at the back,” said the McLaren driver.
He says that despite oversteering, the car then does exactly what he wants. “I can better control how I position the car for the corner,” he says. “It’s different with understeer: I have the feeling that the car is controlling me.” And: When understeering, he feels like he has to wait “forever” before he can accelerate again.
He would therefore like to trim the McLaren in a different direction for 2023 and of course gives his team the appropriate feedback. “At the same time, I want them to just give me the fastest possible car. And if that doesn’t meet my expectations, that’s fine anyway.”
“My job as a driver is to adapt to this.”