Lando Norris says McLaren may need setup changes to combat Red Bull's straight-line speed

Lando Norris has hinted McLaren may need to consider setup “tweaks” after losing out to Max Verstappen in the F1 sprint race at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Norris finished third in the sprint race at Spa-Francorchamps, recovering from a poor Lap 1 where he dropped behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

McLaren teammate and F1 title rival Oscar Piastri finished second after losing out to Max Verstappen on Lap 1.

Verstappen’s straight-line speed was too strong for Piastri to defend on the opening lap.

This remained the case for the entire race, as Piastri remained stuck behind Verstappen in DRS range.

Verstappen was consistently the fastest driver in sector one in sprint qualifying, along with Esteban Ocon.

Speaking after the sprint, Norris suggested McLaren will have to “re-assess”.

“I mean not a lot going on. Obviously, a bit of fun at the start in trying to overtake Charles,” Norris explained.

“Maybe I could have positioned myself a bit better. Otherwise, a bit too difficult to get past Max. Max drove a good race. I wasn’t going to get past anyone unless Oscar got past Max.

“They drove good races. Not a lot we could do on a day like today so I am looking forward to tomorrow.”

“It’s tough. I hoped for a bit of battling or something. The Red Bull is just too quick on the straights for us to catch up. Maybe some tweaks for us to make going into qualifying. I don’t know. We will re-assess and see what we can do.”

Norris confident heading into qualifying

Norris is confident he will be in the fight for pole despite a poor sprint qualifying display.

The British driver was beaten by Verstappen to second on the grid in sprint qualifying.

Alarmingly, Norris was 0.6s off his teammate’s pace.

“That’s the plan. I am not too fussed about sprint races but the main races I prefer to win. We will see,” Norris added.

‘I wasn’t too bad yesterday. I was still comfortable. It was just a couple of things that didn’t go my way but I am still confident we can have a good result later and put in some good laps.”