Lando Norris came within a whisker of winning the Singapore GP. The Brit finished P2 behind Carlos Sainz. However, the characteristics of the Singapore GP weren’t supposed to be to MCL60’s liking. Then how did Norris achieve this feat? Well, the credit goes to Fernando Alonso and Co. who were ripped off by McLaren as advised by the F1 journalists. But what exactly did McLaren do?

Remember how Racing Point (now Aston Martin) copied Mercedes and raced with the Pink Mercedes for the 2020 season? Well, McLaren seems to have taken inspiration from Fernando Alonso’s team and copied some stuff of their own to give Lando Norris a huge boost at the Singapore GP. However, unlike the 2020 Pink Mercedes, it’s more than just a copy and enhancement of the AMR23 design. 

McLaren has arguably been the 2nd best team on the grid ever since their upgrades arrived at the Austrian GP. The car was super quick through high-speed corners but lacked slow-speed corner stability and traction. Singapore is a track full of slow-speed corners. So how do you tackle that problem? Well, you do what McLaren did. Take the best car in the slow-speed corners, study it, copy the design, and enhance it. 

McLaren brought huge upgrades for Norris’ MCL60 at the Singapore GP which included new side pods and floor along with rear and front wing updates to complement the new design. Aston Martin has been the best team in the slow-speed corners throughout the year. Aston Martin’s swooping slide-like sidepod design was copied by the Woking team that focuses on directly the air toward the bottom of the rear wing. This helps with the rear stability, something which is crucial for the lower-speed corners. 

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F1 journalist, Franco Nugnes explained the same as he talked about McLaren’s new upgrades and how the side pods are inspired by Aston Martin’s design. Norris however advised that the problems with the MCL60 remain prevalent.

Lando Norris’ verdict on the upgraded MCL60

While McLaren was amongst the quickest teams during the Singapore GP, Lando Norris stays adamant about the fact that the MCL60 still has some unresolved issues. He explains how the upgraded car is able to go around the track quicker but still has the same issues as before. The draggy nature of the papaya car continues to be a problem. 

According to The Race, Lando said, “In my opinion, it’s just a very upgraded version of what we have. The characteristic of how we drive is still the same, the problems we have are still the same. So it’s not like we’ve stepped back and redone everything and it handles completely differently. We’re just going quicker, but with the same issues for a lot of it which don’t allow us at the minute to compete with Red Bull.”

What do you make of McLaren’s new Aston Martin-esque upgrades?

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