In the third year of the Groundeffect era, the teams are closer together – Lando Norris believes there is “a greater incentive to do well in qualifying “
Lando Norris believes that qualifying will be much more important this season than last year. Because the teams are closer together in the third year of the Groundeffect era, the competition has “become a bit tougher”, says the McLaren driver. “The further the cars develop, the more challenging the races become,” says Norris. “Maybe that gives you more incentive to do well in qualifying. “
It’s “always part of racing how much you compromise between qualifying and race set-up,” explains Norris. “Obviously you never try to compromise in qualifying. It’s rare that you say, ‘Okay, we’re just going to focus on the race set-up’. And when you do, it’s about a few very small things that probably won’t change too much in qualifying.”
If you only lose a few hundredths or thousandths, you can think about such compromises, says Norris. “But it’s rare that you lose a tenth or two because you’re concentrating on one side or the other,” reveals the McLaren driver.
Is qualifying more important this season? “Yes, maybe a bit more, simply because the races get tougher as you progress,” the Briton suspects. “Some races will be different, but that’s definitely a good point. “
Overtaking more difficult? “Far too early to say “
However, the McLaren driver cannot confirm that it is more difficult to overtake the car in front again this year because of the “dirty air”. “I think it’s far too early to say,” says Norris. “I have the feeling that people in the paddock make too many judgments after one race.”
You have to wait for a few races before you can “make assumptions about where the teams are and how much faster they are”. In addition, things change very quickly, especially at the start of the season. “It’s hard to say,” Norris is honest
But: “I think we saw last week that our pace is very similar compared to Mercedes. And if you’re half a tenth or a tenth faster, that’s nowhere near enough to overtake.” This has “not been the case for years”, said Norris.
Will the cards be reshuffled at the next races?
That’s why the 24-year-old suspects that the gaps to certain cars that McLaren are competing against are smaller than in previous years. This is the only reason why it was much more difficult to make decent time gains and overtake the competition in Bahrain.
“But not necessarily because the cars are harder to track, but because the gaps between the cars are smaller than in previous years,” Norris suspects. “I think that’s the most important point.”
Furthermore, Bahrain is difficult to see as a reference because the teams had a particularly large amount of testing time there. This is another reason why Norris still has hope for the next races, because “you have to get used to the set-up a bit quicker and you don’t have enough time to maximize everything, so the order might change a bit more. “
