Photo Credit: McLaren Racing
It was a P7 result for Lando Norris at Spa for the Belgian Grand Prix. After the McLaren team opted for a high downforce set-up and ultimately gambling on rain to make this set up quick, the team struggled to show it’s recent upturn in pace during the race weekend.
Being locked into your chosen set up after FP1 on a Sprint Weekend is something that teams have struggled with. McLaren had some great pace during the sprint due to their wet set-up on their MCL60, however ultimately being locked into this proved a struggle for the Woking-based team on Sunday.
Speaking after the race, Lando Norris admitted the opening stint was ‘terrible’.
“Yeah it was terrible, we were just stuck in a circle of not being able to push enough in the middle sector because of the cars ahead, and just getting overtaken on the straights. People had to lift in Eue Rouge we were that slow and I was getting overtaken even before the DRS zone even started.”
The 23-year-old Brit went on to say that he also struggled on the hard tyres but moving to the softs saved his race, ultimately surprised with his P7 result.
“We had to try something so we went onto the hard, this was even worse but no one had ever used the hard all weekend so we thought normally it suits us so I think it was the right decision to try but that was still terrible. Then we put the softs on and everything came back towards us. I didn’t know how we came P7, honestly I felt like I was last for the most part and I ended up P7. So I’m a little bit surprised honestly.”
Finally, Norris who is currently sitting in P8 in the drivers’ championship also stated that his team needs to rethink how they set up their car on certain tracks.
“We need to rethink how we approach a race weekend, with the wing level and stuff. It might work on one but it doesn’t work on all of them and we clearly got it wrong this weekend.”
