Lando Norris expands on how the McLaren F1 car doesn’t suit his style of driving, but he has given up on pushing for it and left it on the team prepare a fast car.
It is always the case of driving a car which is fast and suits your style or driving a car which is fast and you have to adjust your style to it. It is difficult for teams up front to have it both and it is on the combo to identify what is best for them whether as individuals or as a F1 team.
It has taken long for McLaren to return to the top and they don’t wish to jeopradise the chance, which is why the idea is to make fast cars rather than adjust to suit the driving style and compromise the pace. Their long-running driver Norris admitted to not being 100% in sync with the car.
It is in the sense that, the car is fast and Norris is more or less extracting as much, but he has to make changes in his driving style to adapt to the car. Explaining the areas, the Brit noted that he cannot push the car the way he likes in the entries and braking.
“I think, in general, some of the traits are the same,” started Norris. “It still doesn’t suit my driving style at all. I think I’ve almost gotten to a point where I’ve just accepted that you can’t have a perfect car that suits your style. Maybe it suits some people, but I’ve kind of stopped asking for exactly what I want and more just focused on whatever makes the car quicker.
“It’s probably a tricky car to drive and to put together a lap, but clearly, it’s taken a step forward from last year. At the end of the day, my job is to drive whatever car I get given. That’s why I’m here. That’s why McLaren wanted me. They believe I can drive it better than others can. Half and half. It’s similar characteristics and some of those characteristics I don’t like and don’t suit the way I want to drive, in an attacking way. It doesn’t suit me in terms of me wanting to push the entries and push the braking.
“It’s very weak, I would say, from that point of view. Not what I like but at the same time some of it is down to the adaptation, needing to change my driving style every year, because the car I drive is very different to what McLaren was a few years ago, clearly, because then we were at the back and now we’re at the front. But some things carry on.
“Some things are like ‘ this is a McLaren’ for those reasons and I’ve only ever driven McLarens, so that’s all I know. I think it’s unique in certain aspects. Obviously we have our strengths and weakness and whenever someone has been at McLaren and gone to another team they have often said how hard or odd the McLaren has been to drive, whether that’s Daniel or with Carlos.
“It’s also like all I’ve got used to, so I’ve got to the point where I’ll just drive whatever car I have to drive as long as it’s fighting for a win and quick enough to fit for a win, I’m happy enough to drive what I’m given. I think the thing is, the aero guys and girls back in the factory they just try to find lap time. You’ve got to balance how you work the car.
“Like certain other teams have said, at times you can try to find a more peaky aero balance. If it works at the peak, it’s better, but it might be trickier to drive and worse in windy conditions. Or do you try to get rid of some of that peak grip and make it a slightly more all-rounded car? You have to play with this balance, because it’s difficult to get both. You have to choose what direction you want to go in.
“And definitely, I think some of what I want from a car is first of all just very hard to get. That’s probably the best answer. For me, a good front at apex, that’s kind of all I feel like I want. But I very rarely have what I need from that perspective. But the car can still win races. It’s not like if I don’t have what I want, the car is bad. I can still get the most out of the car, if I don’t have what I want.
“There are just compromises. It’s so complicated when the guys and the girls try to take you through… If I do want more front end at mid-corner, at the minute we can only get that if we compromise low-speed or high-speed performance, or making the car more sensitive to windy conditions. There are so many compromises you have to make and at the end of the day, you just want the best all-rounded car.
“I think that’s the main answer to it all. I think I’ve got a better understanding of that over the past couple of years on driving styles, how I need to drive the car. Maybe making a bit of that switch from ‘I want this from the car, and I want to keep driving my way until you make it more suited me’. I guess I’ve kind of thrown that away and just said, ‘alright, give me the best car, and I need to adapt a lot more to the car I get given’.
“It’s not the most comfortable, it’s not what I like the most, it’s now what I can get the most out of but over the last year and a half, I’ve probably learned more about my driving than I did in the previous five years, just because the car has changed, and I’ve fallen into this philosophy of give me the best car and I’ll adapt to that rather than give me the car I want,” summed up Norris.
The chiefs at McLaren had similar views. Both Zak Brown and Andrea Stella understand the needs of Norris, but they had to make the difficult choice. They feel it is working to a certain extent as the Brit is still able to win races and finish on podiums while taking pole as well.
It is always a challenge to meet the 100% demands and they try to fulfill as much. “I think you’re always trying to make the car a little bit easier for the drivers,” said Brown. “Someone said to me, it didn’t look like we put a lap time down in Bahrain testing—we tried, we just didn’t put one down.
“So I think we need to make the car a little bit more compliant. It’s clearly very quick, but when you get it up on its nose, so to speak, and you’re flinging it around at ten-tenths, yeah, the drivers want to make it a little bit more compliant,” summed up Brown.
Here’s Valtteri Bottas testing for McLaren
Here’s Oscar Piastri on his own step
Here’s Lando Norris on brake issue, Andrea Stella adds
