Lando Norris will start his fourth season as a McLaren driver in Formula 1 in 2022. But despite his growing experience, his influence on the technical development of the MCL36 presented on Friday was even less than that of the previous MCL35 model.
The 22-year-old admitted that at the launch of the new car in Woking.
In the MCL35, “to be honest, almost more” was put into it, Norris admits: “Especially because we were more at a time with the car when you could make more of a difference and get more performance out of doing that car according to the needs of the driver.”
“With these new cars we’re so early in development that you get the most performance just by building the car to go as fast as possible. Then when you get down to the fine details, it becomes a driver’s influence bigger. But right now I’m just telling the engineers that the car has to be as fast as possible! I’ll drive it then.”
In other words: while the engineers have been able to predict fairly precisely how a new car will perform in recent years, with largely stable regulations, in 2022 all teams will start with a blank sheet of paper.
And there the potential time gains through an overall faster technical concept are much greater than small subtleties, so that the car suits the driving style of a driver.
Norris: Influence will grow over the years
“When we’re in the second, third, fifth year, then we’ll start to adjust the direction more according to the wishes of the driver. But we’re so early on and don’t know how the cars are performing or how they react.” , explains Norris.
“We don’t even know how they drive in general. And as long as that’s the case, there’s no point in telling the engineers that I want this and that and that. There’s so much stuff to come before we get into those work out the details.”
“There are a few things, for example in terms of comfort, yes. I know where I want my buttons and switches, what colors this and that should have. I can change that. Or the feeling with the setting of the gas and brake pedals.”
“But in terms of sheer performance, it’s too early for me to really make an impact. I just let the guys work. In a few years, when the car is more mature and almost perfect, then we’ll adjust a few more things “, he is convinced.
Ricciardo in a different situation than Norris
It’s a little different for his teammate Daniel Ricciardo, who had virtually no influence on the 2021 MCL35 because he was still driving for Renault in 2020 and wasn’t a member of the team. As a result, he was unable to provide the engineers with any input in the crucial development phase.
The MCL36, on the other hand, is “hopefully a car that suits my strengths a little more,” says the Australian. “Time will tell. The team has taken over a lot from 2021 and also incorporated a lot of our input.”
“Last year Lando mostly felt more comfortable in the car,” admits Ricciardo. “But there were also situations in which he took over something from me. The development is going in the right direction for both of us.”
“So far we haven’t had any correlation because we’ve only driven the new car in the simulator and not on the track. Of course we’re aiming for a few optimizations, but we’ll only know during the first tests what basis we’re working with at all.”
By the way: A video with an initial analysis of the McLaren MCL35, highlights from the presentation on Friday in Woking and an interview with team boss Andreas Seidl is now available on the Formel1.de YouTube channel. Subscribe to the channel and activate the bell so you never miss a new Formula 1 video!