The Woking team had a difficult and disappointing start to the 2022 Formula 1 season due to its poor performance at the Bahrain Grand Prix, and that is reinforced by the statements made by its drivers.
Lando Norris, entering his fourth year with the Brits, explained that the MCL36 still lacks grip, although the car’s balance isn’t as bad as it may seem, so they know where to focus their efforts.
“Downforce and grip, in general, is a pretty straightforward thing,” he said moments before the start of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. “There are times where the balance has been fine, but if it’s fine and you’re slow, then there’s just something you need.”
“There are not many problems. I guess aerodynamics is something that is very difficult to get in the world of Formula 1 because it is all you need, and that is what we are suffering from now, that is what we have to work on. said the English.
Norris said the team was wondering why there was a lack of pace in the first round in Bahrain compared to testing in Barcelona, but he believes that is basically because other teams made good progress in their cars, while McLaren did not. advanced.
“What confused us a bit at the beginning was that we were strong in Barcelona,” he said. “I think we started with a good car, but we didn’t progress much because it was a car that performed well on the track and we understood how to optimize it quickly.
“Then we couldn’t go much further from there, the others were able to take steps forward and continue to find out more about the car. There was hope after Barcelona, but it gradually disappeared over time and when everyone else was able to find more, so we took a few steps back,” Lando Norris said.
Although adding more downforce to the McLaren will take time, the Briton is confident that the car’s designers and technical director, James Key , will be able to make improvements.
“It’s not easy to say exactly when, or anything, but I have a lot of faith,” he said. “We weren’t strong at the start, and it took us a bit in the first race, but there is hope and a good team in Woking who are already working on a good plan to put things back together and try to understand what went wrong.” .
“As soon as we find out, then it will be light. James [Key] is already working, and as soon as we realized where we were relative to the other teams, he was putting a recovery plan in place to try to get back to a much more comfortable position. high,” said the pilot.
