Lando Norris expressed his frustration with the handling of his McLaren MCL60 in Barcelona, claiming it is pushing him to make too many mistakes.
Lando Norris expressed his frustration with the handling of his McLaren MCL60 in Barcelona, claiming it is pushing him to make too many mistakes.Sporting their “Triple Crown” livery for the second Formula 1 weekend in a row has not made McLaren go any faster, as Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were off the pace after Friday’s practice in Barcelona.
Norris and Piastri were 11th and 17th fastest in FP1, while they finished FP2 14th and 12th respectively, as the once great F1 team continue to struggle in 2023.
Norris reflected on his Friday running around the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya; he said: “We struggled with a few different things in FP1, some of which we improved a bit and some I am still struggling with.
“In terms of the handling and putting it all together, [I’m] making too many mistakes because of how I feel I have to drive the car at the minute,” he added.
A tricky Friday for McLaren
“After a very different track in Monaco, it took me a few laps to get back into the swing of things here. We struggled a little bit with the car from the off, but we improved in FP2.
“It’s been a tough day, one of our trickier Fridays in terms of pace and set-up. The pace can be there-ish, probably towards the back end of it.
“It’s not bad, we just need to work on driveability and take a step forward ahead of [Saturday’s] sessions,” the Briton pointed out.
Asked about the revised track layout in Barcelona; he said: “I did some following. Sometimes it feels a bit better, it can be easy to make a mistake in the final corner, but other times it felt a bit worse.
“I don’t have an answer yet … We will find out in the race on Sunday,” Norris concluded.