Lando Norris does not see the near future of the MCL38 too rosy. The Brit is disappointed that McLaren was not able to make as much progress as he had hoped during the winter break, although Norris is happy with the progress that has been made. The McLaren driver now hopes that upgrades will help the racing team.
Now that the young Briton has had two races to test his MCL38, Norris has been able to make an analysis of what is and is not good about his new McLaren car. “I think we’ve made good steps in a lot of areas, just pure development steps as any team would make, but in terms of us as McLaren and the characteristics we’ve had as a McLaren car, we certainly haven’t made as many (steps, ed.) as I would have liked and hoped for in the winter,” is the Brit’s first conclusion, speaking to Sky Sports.
According to Norris, McLaren does not yet fully know ‘the route we should take’, and the team is therefore still busy investigating in which areas the MCL38 can be improved. ‘So it will be a kind of win-win-win if we can improve in these areas, but that is proving to be very difficult. So am I completely satisfied with that? No. But am I happy with the progress we made over the winter? Yes.’
Norris doesn’t dare to look far ahead
Norris, who is still waiting for his first Grand Prix victory, therefore only dares to look ahead a little to how the rest of the season will go for McLaren. ‘Some of these things (new updates, ed.) are small things that make a few hundredths of a difference here and there. If you have three or four of those things that make a difference of a few hundredths, maybe you can talk about a tenth, and if you talk about a tenth, you’re already talking about a good step.’
Yet Norris remains realistic and thinks that every team will make the same steps in the near future. ‘Of course we are trying to make ours (updates, ed.) bigger and more efficient and all that stuff, but those are not the things that address our biggest weakness as a team at the moment. They are just background developments that help the car to go a little faster.’
