McLaren driver Lando Norris believes that the McLaren was probably one of the quickest cars in Spa even after disappointing results by the team at the Belgian GP.
Belgian Grand Prix was a disaster for McLaren as both the drivers failed to score even a single point.
Nevertheless, Lando Norris thinks there was more to it. The Briton thinks that the team was even faster than Red bull on straights. But, believes that MCL36 makes poor use of DRS.
McLaren showed glances of pace throughout the weekend in Spa. Norris finished P3 in FP2 before ending the final session with a strong P4.
Daniel Ricciardo could not make it to Q3. Norris on the other hand didn’t attempt a run in Q3 knowing that grid penalties will make him go back in the order anyway.
Multiple penalties helped Ricciardo start the race from P7. However, the 33-year-old poor run of form continued as he dropped back to 15th by the end of the race. While Norris climbed up to P12 starting the race from P17.
Norris believes that results could have been better
Norris just missed out on the points as he came home in P12. The young Briton was just under three seconds to P10 as Alex Albon held off an attacking Lance Stroll and Norris.
It was a rather frustrating day for the team. Norris believes that things went wrong with DRS as the car was underperforming when it was in the DRS train of other cars.
“I think we were probably one of the quicker ones on the straights, where we lose a lot is in DRS, for some reason in DRS we’re pretty shocking,”
he said to media.
“Some cars are a lot better than others, like in a pure straight-line condition I think yesterday we were quicker than Red Bull.
“But then the Red Bull opens DRS and gain somehow like another 15km/h and is in a completely different league to a lot of people.
“So, there’s something we’re maybe missing with DRS, so that makes our overtaking opportunities less than other people.
“But straight-line, we were probably one of the quickest this weekend, final sector probably one of the quickest at times yesterday.
“But just slow speed, medium speed, high speed, nothing was a strength this weekend, we’re just a bit down in every area.”
New cars may be the ones to blame for McLaren’s performance at Spa
This year regulations and aerodynamic changes have made cars easier to follow and race closely. However, it has also resulted in weaker slipstream which ultimately cost Norris at Spa against Albon and Stroll.
“I think it’s exactly as I expected,”
he said.
“I think we knew the racing was going to be a lot worse here this year than it was in previous years, just because the slipstream is so much worse.
“But yeah, apart from that, just getting stuck behind the Aston, and the Williams. I think the Aston’s pace was clearly better than us today.
“But the Williams is just so quick in the straight, and I’m in the DRS train, and I just couldn’t do a lot, I reckon we were just where we deserved to be.”
Lando Norris also pointed out the track length for the Belgian GP. The Briton indicates that the nature of the 7-kilometer-long Spa exaggerated the pace difference between cars.
“I think the gaps between all cars looked bigger this weekend than normal,”
he explained.
“A longer track, a lot of it’s all about efficiency here, running as low downforce as possible. But still having a car that performs very well in all the high-speed and low-speed corners, and that’s clearly what we don’t have.”
Spa is famous for its high-speed nature and overtaking options.
Lando is positive for the 2022 Dutch Grand Prix
Last year when Formula 1 returned to Zandvoort for the 2021 Dutch Grand Prix, it was not an ideal outing for McLaren.
Norris finished 10th with Ricciardo right behind him in 11th. This year, however, Norris is positive that he will get a better result.
“High downforce, so hopefully moves us a little bit more back in line with Budapest’s kind of pace. I hope,”
said the 22-year-old.
“But you never know, it was our worst track last season, so I’m hoping this year it’s not the case, because some of the problems that we had in previous years are maybe not so evident this year.
“And we’ve got other problems, so we’ll see, it can’t be a lot worse I hope than this weekend.”
McLaren rival Alpine had a much better outing at Belgian Grand Prix. Fernando Alonso finished 5th followed by Ocon in 7th.
This helped the Enstone-based side move 20 points clear of McLaren in the constructors standings.
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