The first day of the final F1 pre-season tests in Bahrain began with a change in the Woking team’s line-up as Daniel Ricciardo, due to take to the track in the morning, was unwell.
Therefore, Norris had to get behind the wheel and complete the entire day, not just the afternoon as scheduled. His best time put him sixth in the table, some 1.4 seconds behind leader Gasly ‘s AlphaTauri, but the long runs that had been planned for the British driver were compromised by a brake problem.
“I think overall it wasn’t the day we really wanted it to be,” said Lando Norris, whose lap count (50) bested only a Haas who missed the morning session due to a transport delay.
“I guess it all started when I had to do the whole day. Daniel wasn’t feeling too good so I decided to get involved, it was much easier to do it that way.”
“But we had quite a few issues with the car today, and it took a long time to sort out, and it limited us a bit to do the number of laps we wanted.
“A bit frustrating, because especially here, such a different circuit to Barcelona, we wanted to try to understand as much as we could and see the differences, and how the cars work on a much bumpier track.
“I think we still did it to a certain extent, but we couldn’t do longer runs. I made the most of it, but there were some issues that slowed us down and we have to fix them.”
Asked to explain more about those issues, Norris confirmed that the brakes on the MCL36, which debuts livery in Bahrain, had hampered his progress.
“We just had problems with the brakes, simple as that,” he said. “I’m not sure of the exact issues, just things related to temperature and whatnot.”
“It didn’t allow us to do long runs. These are things that we will try to fix in the next few days, but it will not be an easy solution, so we will see what we can do.”
Asked if the problem will also restrict McLaren’s operation for the remaining two days of testing, Norris said: “We hope not, we want to get things resolved tonight, tomorrow or as soon as possible.”
“Obviously it wasn’t something we could fix today, it’s not that easy to fix.”
“We are going to react here and there to allow us to run more safely. The boys are already working on that.”
“There’s a lot of work to do, so we’ll see.”
Photos: this is what the McLaren MCL36 looks like with its new livery for F1 2022
Foto de: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Uncredited
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Uncredited
