“Had This Problem for 5 Years”: Ignoring Remarkable 2020 Feat, Lando Norris Questions McLaren’s “DNA” Amid Current Bout of Struggles

In an ideal world, a team would want to produce as much downforce around corners while also being super fast on the straights without causing too much drag. But this isn’t an ideal world, and F1 teams look to create the perfect balance between straight-line speed and downforce. Red Bull has nearly perfected this balancing act this season. But unlike it, McLaren and Lando Norris have been struggling with this balance throughout Norris’ career.

An F1 car’s performance relies heavily on downforce. The higher the downforce, the quicker a car’s speed through corners, but the straight-line speed gets compromised. Therefore, finding a perfect balance considering the nature of the track is crucial to having a good race weekend. McLaren hasn’t had a good race weekend in a while now. Even with its remarkable feat of beating Renault & Ferrari in 2020, things have gone south for the Papaya team.

Lando Norris believes McLaren is a Saturday car

Watching Lando Norris fly during qualifying is something every McLaren fan enjoys. Because, usually that’s the last time they get to witness the Woking team’s pace during a race weekend. McLaren has become a Saturday car in 2023. What does that mean? Its one-lap pace on new tires is great, but as the laps start increasing and the tires start wearing, the MCL60’s pace reduces drastically, lap after lap. 

Considering F1’s parc ferme conditions, no team can tweak the setup once qualifying starts. Thus, choosing the right balance for a car is essential to be good at qualifying and the race. Finding this balance is exactly what McLaren struggles with. According to Auto Motor und Sport, Norris said, “If the balance of the car isn’t right, you pay more on Sunday than on Saturday. Because new tires cover so much. We’ve had this problem for five years. It’ss somehow in the DNA of our cars”  

While McLaren’s speed is good on new tires, it’s considerably worse on used ones. We lose up to eight-tenths from the first to the second round,” said Norris.

Making setup changes to suit a track is one thing. But designing a car that’ll be competitive throughout the year—like Red Bull has—is an entirely different ball game. Norris also explained that it wouldn’t make a difference if McLaren used the same downforce settings as Red Bull because those settings won’t suit McLaren’s design. The MCL60 might get faster through corners, but it’ll suffer even more than it already does on the straights. 

Read More: Lando Norris Exposes McLaren’s “Shocking” List of Shortcomings While Issuing a Thunderous Message to the Team: “Still a Lot of Work to Improve”

Despite McLaren’s remarkable season in 2020 that saw the Woking team finish third ahead of Renault and Ferrari, Norris knows that McLaren has a fundamental problem that can’t be fixed overnight. Given its history in the sport, there’s no doubt McLaren can return to the top. But will Lando Norris stick around long enough for that to happen?

Lando Norris’ future at McLaren is uncertain

Ever since he joined the sport in 2019, Lando Norris has been touted as a potential world champion. Considering its performances in 2020 and 2021, Norris was hopeful. But the past two seasons have proved very difficult for the Briton, both in terms of performances and his hopes of winning a race—let alone a title—with McLaren.

Recently, there have been speculations that he might want to move to a better team where his chances of winning races and titles will increase. Veteran F1 journalist Peter Windsor claimed that moving to Alpine might not be out of the ordinary. Red Bull has also previously shown interest in Norris, but whether he would want to go there and play second fiddle to Max Verstappen (as Windsor claimed) would be up to him.

Either way, Norris has options galore for his future in F1. Will he want to stick around any longer, or will he leave the Woking outfit even before his contract expires in 2025?

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