McLaren suffered a serious blow in the first Formula 1 race of 2022, leaving Bahrain with no points and extremely poor performance. After the pre-season in Barcelona, the team was one of the favourites, but in Sakhir there was little sign of them.
Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris finished 14th and 15th respectively. “I’m sure it looks as bad as it feels,” said a disappointed Norris after crossing the finish line. “But it’s right where we are right now and we have to get used to it a little bit.”
McLaren ‘s expectations were very high: after third and fourth place in 2020 and 2021, they wanted to be one of the candidates for victories in 2022 thanks to the arrival of the new technical regulations.
However, the first weekend of F1 in Bahrain has confirmed the worst suspicions: “At the moment we have not done well. We are very, very far away. Not just a little, but very far,” acknowledged the British driver.
Referring to the question everyone is asking right now: what is wrong with the McLaren MCL36 that looked so good in testing? Norris replied: “We just lack a lot of downforce and that’s why it’s quite tricky to drive. It’s a difficult car to optimize.”
“And if you don’t have downforce, the tires don’t work well either and nothing can be put in the optimal window. There’s understeer, oversteer and a lot more things,” explained the Briton.
Norris did not want to blame it on the lack of power from the Mercedes engine, although he also said that the top speed of the car was not very good: “No, we can complain about that, because at Mercedes they were third and fourth. It also does not help that we Something is missing in that sense, of course, but other teams have also had problems”.
The McLaren driver hopes that solutions can be found soon, but admitted that it will be difficult to be competitive next week at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix: “In the coming months we have to understand what is happening and how it can be improved.”
“I still think that some circuits will benefit us more. I hope this was the lowest point of the season. I don’t know why, but it could be,” he said disgruntled.
“We still have the whole course ahead of us to develop it. And once we figure out the problem, it’s just going to be about fixing it and making improvements to the car. But yeah, figuring it out is probably the hardest part.”
“That could maybe come after a third of the season, in the middle or after three quarters. I don’t want to think that the whole season is needed. I have confidence in the team, they have done it the last two years, they have made great strides towards forward, so now we have to take a step back, look at everything again and start again.
But for now, Norris explained that they are in for a painful moment: “Everybody has to know that there will probably be more pain. We expected a lot more, but it has.”
At McLaren there is no reason to be sad at the start of F1 2022
The young Briton also explained that there is no reason to be sad: “Of course I would prefer to fight for wins and podiums, but I am still a Formula 1 driver. It is clear that there are worse things in the world at the moment, so I don’t I can complain.”
“I know my job is to do my best. Of course it hurts to know that you can put on your best performance ever and still be aware that you’re going to finish 15th, 13th, 16th or whatever.” Norris said.
“But Formula 1 is not always about success and podiums. It’s also about doing the best job possible. And that’s currently the only aspect that the engineers and I can focus on,” he concluded.
