Lando Norris admits McLaren is “very unpredictable” despite Barcelona F1 qualifying pace

Lando Norris admits that his McLaren Formula 1 car is still “quite a handful” and “very unpredictable” in places despite a much improved performance in qualifying at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix. 

Norris was an encouraging fastest in Friday practice at a track that was always expected to be much better suited to the car.

He was fourth when it mattered in Saturday’s qualifying session as Mercedes and Ferrari picked up their pace, but he was more than satisfied with the progress made over the weekend, and the small final margin to the cars ahead.

“I think we took a good step forward,” he said when asked about his session by Crash.net. “Nothing slipped away – it came towards us, we got better. It's just the others pushed a bit more, and just look at their onboard and look at our onboard, I think it's quite easy to see the difference of kind of balance and ease of producing lap time.

“I'm very happy with today. I know the gap was small to P3 but he's [Kimi Antonelli] in a car that can go three-tenths quicker and I'm in a car that can maybe go half a tenth quicker, maybe one. I'm satisfied with today and we should be happy as a team.”

He conceded that while the car was more competitive it didn’t feel better than it did in Monaco, acknowledging that track characteristics had made the difference.

"Not really, still quite a handful in a lot of places, very unpredictable in places,” he said. “I think we can just be more committed with things. Monaco, so many corners, we just couldn't commit to corners. We were afraid of the rear, then the front, and it's also just a different characteristic.

“Here, the minimum is third gear, probably still like 100 and something kph, and everything else is fourth, fifth, sixth gears, corners. Monaco is all second, first, third, so we're in a completely different regime.

“It's just the car didn't perform in slow-speed corners, and still doesn't. It's not like we've improved anything from that side. It's just the width of the track and how long and flowing these corners suit us much better.”

The car is also benefiting from the presence of the new front wing tried in practice in Montreal and Monaco, and which appeared this weekend with updated endplates.

“We're talking minimal, probably not even half a tenth,” said Norris. “So it's hard to know a number, but everything helps. Probably got me P4 today over P5, Max is only two-hundredths behind, so we're still in a race where hundredths of a second count. So the team are doing a very good job to bring it, bring everything that we can at this point.”

Norris admitted it was difficult for McLaren to accept that it isn’t the consistently competitive force that he was last year after a “shocking” performance last weekend.

“For a few years now, we've not had any like outliers,” he said. “We won Monaco last year, so I think it's tough for us to kind of realise we're not at the same level as what we were.

“We don't have a car that is just good everywhere. We have a car that is pretty good in Miami, pretty reasonable in Canada, not bad here, but shocking in Monaco. And for us to be three-tenths off here, I think is just a good effort, considering we were six/seven last weekend, and that's not the best thing.

“We're happy, it's P4, but the other guys did good laps, but we were definitely unable to achieve that.”

Despite the MCL40 being acknowledged as being kind on its tyres Norris is cautious about prospects for Sunday’s race, suggesting that others have pace in hand.

“I don't think we're as good on tyre deg as Mercedes,” he said. “I think they're probably the leaders in tyre deg. I think we're good comparing to others, but also the Ferrari is incredible in the corners.

“They're still class leaders in cornering speeds, they probably lose two/three tenths in drag and a little bit in power, which is some of their own doing, but at the same time, to beat a car that's three tenths quicker in qualifying is a big task tomorrow in a race where you almost want to drive slower than what you can achieve.

“They can drive three tenths slower, look after the tyres, and still be quicker than us. I need to push an extra tenth overheat the tyres, push more than them to try and get past them.

“So I think it's a race where you don't want to be over-pushing, but it's a race where we're going to have to, if we want more than P4. So we'll fight, but I think we'll also be realistic in what our opportunities are.”