The start of the season really hurt! McLaren suffered a nasty smack at the Formula 1 race in Bahrain, leaving Sachir with no points and a very poor performance.
After the test drives, the racing team was still one of the favorites for victory. But there was little of that this weekend.
Temporarily lapped, Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris crossed the finish line in 14th and 15th. “I’m sure it looks just as bad as it felt,” said a sober Norris after crossing the finish line. “But that’s just where we are right now. We have to get used to that.”
The expectations of McLaren were actually high: after third and fourth place in the previous two years, they wanted to attack the top in 2022 with the new regulations. You could win top-class partners like Google and make a good impression with best times in the test drives.
And then came the Bahrain weekend. “We haven’t gotten it right at the moment. We’re far, far away. Not just a little, but far away,” the Briton has to admit.
The MCL36 lacks downforce
Of course, everyone is now wondering: What’s wrong with the McLaren MCL36 that looked so good in the test drives? “We just lack a lot of downforce and that’s why the handling is pretty bad,” says Norris. “It’s a difficult car that’s difficult to optimize.”
“And if you don’t have downforce then the tires aren’t working well either and nothing’s in a good window. You have understeer, you have oversteer and a lot of other things happen,” he explains.
Norris doesn’t want to blame it on the lack of engine power from the Mercedes power unit, even if the top speed of the car wasn’t great: “No, you can’t complain about that, because Mercedes is still third and fourth,” he dismisses. “Of course it doesn’t help that we’re missing something, but others had problems too.”
Norris just hopes he and McLaren find solutions quickly. But that doesn’t mean they’ll be there next week. “In the coming months we need to understand what’s going on and how it can get better,” he said.
McLaren behind all season?
Does that mean McLaren will be far behind all season? “No,” says Norris. “I still believe that some routes will suit us better. I hope that was the low point. It doesn’t have to be, but it can be,” said the McLaren driver.
“We still have a whole season of development ahead of us. And once we’ve figured out the problem, it’s about applying that and bringing upgrades to the car. But figuring that out is the difficult part,” he says.
“It could come after a third of the season, after half, after three quarters. I don’t want to think it’s going to last the whole season. I have faith in the team. They’ve done it over the past few years, they We’ve made big strides forward, so all we have to do is step back and look at it all again and start again.”
But for now, Norris expects a painful time. “Everyone needs to know that there will probably be some pain,” he says. “McLaren and I expect a lot more, but that’s not possible at the moment.”
No reason for sadness
But he also emphasizes that there is no reason to be sad: “Of course I would rather fight for wins and podiums, but I still drive a Formula 1 car in Bahrain. There are much worse things on the road at the moment world, so I can’t complain.”
“I know it’s my job to just make the best of it. Of course it hurts to know that you can do your best ever and still end up 15th or 13th or 16th or whatever “, says Norris.
“But Formula 1 isn’t always about success and podiums. It’s also about doing the best possible job. And that’s currently the only side that I and the engineers can focus on.”