Lando Norris led the standings with the McLaren on the first day of testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, finishing with the fourth fastest time in the three days.
Woking completed 367 laps in the new MCL36 during testing, trailing only Ferrari and Mercedes in terms of mileage.
Mercedes driver George Russell said on both Thursday and Friday that he thought McLaren looked competitive, calling the team “incredibly strong”.
Norris said it was a “decent start” for McLaren, but also noted that testing had been far from perfect for the team as they had to deal with a number of issues during these early pre-season tests.
“George [Russell] obviously topped the time sheet, so if he thinks we’re strong, we’re going to think he is too,” he said after Friday’s morning session.
“But if there’s any team on the grid right now that is expected to be at the front when it matters, it has to be Mercedes and probably Red Bull, so no, I don’t think we’re in an amazing place.
“I think we are in a good position. We have a car that, as soon as you put it on the track, works well. Of course, there are always new things and some unexpected problems here and there, but it has been a good start,” said Norris. .
There were no red flags or stopped cars on track on the first day of pre-season, but reliability began to suffer for all teams as the test continued, leading to five red flags in Friday’s final session.
One of the biggest challenges teams have faced during testing has been the phenomenon of porpoising in their cars, caused by new ground effect aerodynamic requirements, which McLaren seem to have overcome faster than others.
Asked if he was surprised by the level of reliability in the first test, Norris said: “No, I don’t expect bad things to happen. It works at the highest level.”
“But still we’ve had a lot of hiccups, it hasn’t been perfect. Maybe from the outside it looked unbelievable, however, there’s still a lot of things behind the scenes, that weren’t out of control, but that need to be worked on and fixed, and we’ll figure it out.” for the future”.
“I think it’s been as expected. We’ve had our problems. I think a lot of other teams have had theirs as well. I just tried to iron it out and make sure it didn’t happen in the days that followed.”
Norris will get his next chance to drive the McLaren MCL36 at F1’s second pre-season test in Bahrain, which runs from 10-12 March, before the opening round on 20 March.
