Photo: McLaren Racing
Not quite the best start of the season for McLaren this year, as the team is heading to Melbourne without having scored any points in the first two outings.
Last season the team finished 5th behind Alpine in the constructor’s standings and despite the MCL60 appearing to be struggling just as much Lando Norris believes that – compared to 2022 – it’s more a matter of having a closer midfield than a worse single-seater.
“I don’t think it’s too different to last year, in a way it’s a little bit better than last year. It’s just the field is tighter,” he explained.
“It’s not as bad as it looks, I would say. We’re not quick, that’s the honest answer.”
A lack of performance that met with poor reliability in Bahrain, where Norris had to come back into the pits every ten laps to get refills to make up for a pneumatic pressure leak and Piastri was forced to retire because of an electrical issue.
“It’s just that when it’s closer than ever, it’s more punishing when things don’t go your way,” continued Norris.
“We just had more issues, more reliability problems in race one, and obviously my mistake [in qualifying] and from Oscar’s side, the incident with Gasly cost us.”
Things in Jeddah didn’t end much better for McLaren, with Piastri crossing the finish line in 15th’s place and Norris ending up in P17.
The Brit had a costly impact with the wall during Saturday’s qualifying that damaged his steering arm and translated into a P19 start.
Not a much better start either for his teammate, who collided with Pierre Gasly’s Alpine in the opening lap and was forced to pit for a new front wing.
Next lap Norris had to make a stop to substitute his front wing as well, as it was damaged picking up debris from Piastri’s incident.
Finding themselves at the back the two teammates crossed paths in the closing laps of the Grand Prix.
“It was good, my first time racing Oscar, it was good fun,” later he commented.
A first encounter that saw the Australian overtake Norris, who reclaimed the position – P16 – only to be asked by the team to let his rookie teammate – who seemed to have better pace to catch the Williams of Logan Sergeant up in P15 – pass by.
“The team told me not to make it too hard for him, so in the end I let him go,” he said.
“I probably could have got the Williams. I think I would have got the Williams myself, but I let him go. I made his life easier, I let him have a chance of getting past the Williams, which he did.”
Something he didn’t have too much trouble doing this time around that not even points were at stake, but that – he cleared – would be different weren’t they fighting for P16.
“It would be different if I was fighting for points, but 16th and 17th,” remarked Norris.
As things stand after this first encounter between the two teammates it seems that down in Wokings they trust they would be able to race each other without causing too much trouble to one another.
“We discuss these things before the race,” assured Team Principal Andrea Stella regarding the decision to swap cars to challenge Williams.
Stella seems pleased with the way Norris and Piastri have handled things so far.
“I really would like to pay tribute to the fairness of our drivers. When racing each other it was very clean,” he said.
“We know we can let them race, in this sense, because we know we can trust them.”
As long as they handle close-ups between each other with “extra care”.
“You know, they are extremely fair drivers anyhow, but if the car is papaya, extra care.
Stella also had a few words about the newly arrived at McLaren, who is on for a constant progress through this first Formula 1 season.
“We have seen really strong progress from Oscar. For me, it’s steady progress, session by session,” he explained.
“If you look back, in FP1 he was a little bit more competitive than in Bahrain, then FP2 closer, and FP3, pretty much a match with Lando.”
Up until quali, as he started the Saudi Arabian GP from P8.
“He capitalised in qualifying and then was very strong in the race. For me, I see more this sense of constant progression [instead of a big sudden jump ahead], which is ultimately the plan that we have with Oscar.”
