Lando Norris doesn’t get along so well with his McLaren in Austin on Friday: understeer, problems with set-up and balance – and lagging behind Max Verstappen
It’s going to be hard for Lando Norris to win the World Cup: in Austin, the Briton actually wanted to build on his dominant victory in Singapore and put further pressure on title rival Max Verstappen – but on Friday that didn’t work out for the time being:
While the world champion in the Red Bull is racing for pole position for the sprint race, Norris has to settle for fourth place on the grid, two and a half tenths behind the world champion – a setback in the World Championship battle, where every point counts. Not everything went according to plan for the McLaren driver in SQ1 and SQ2 either, with fourth and sixth place.
In session three, Norris was unable to turn things around: “Not very good. Fourth place, so not a great day. I had difficulties all day, to be honest, with the balance and the set-up,” explains Norris, who, with just six thousandths of a second ahead of fifth-placed Carlos Sainz, says: ‘In a way, I’m happy with P4, because it felt like it could have been a lot worse.’
Norris sees McLaren “where we deserve to be”
On the in-lap, Norris was already downbeat on the radio, didn’t even want updates from his team about the other drivers’ placings, and spoke of a “crappy” lap. After getting out of the car, the McLaren star slightly adjusted his choice of words: His lap was “shocking,” said Norris: “Not a terrible day, because it could have been worse – but it could have been better too. But I’ll take it.”
On Friday, Norris was particularly bothered by the understeer of his MCL38 on fast sections of the track. However, the runner-up in the world championship does not want to pin the problems on the updates that the Papaya team has brought to Austin – from the front wing to the suspension to minor details at the rear of the car. After all, they are still “pretty much the same” as what McLaren last drove.
With an eye on the weekend ahead, Norris is looking ahead despite the modest start, although he is still unable to get a clear picture of the pecking order in terms of pace on Fridays: “Not really. I hope we can improve, that’s the plan. But in terms of pace, I think we were where we deserved to be today.”
Norris: “I want to get ahead, but I have no idea how much we can.” At least the McLaren star has 19 laps in the sprint on Saturday to catch up – and will at least have a few more answers after that.
