McLaren boys Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris are not having a brilliant start to the season. The MCL36, expected to be a title contender, has suddenly left the papaya camp disheartened. While the team has made improvements over the first race, they’re still a long way from victory. Norris and Ricciardo are totally relying on their driving skills to breeze through the midfield.

Daniel Ricciardo pats Lando Norris’ back

The new McLaren faced severe issues during the Bahrain testing. Moreover, it seems like the Mercedes power unit does not agree with the Papaya team as of now. Despite trying their best, Daniel and Lando could only manage a P14 and P15 at the Bahrain GP. However, Saudi qualifying saw them performing better as they filled in P11 and P12 slots.

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The final race, however, saw Lando turning in points as he managed P7. Later, Ricciardo in a video was seen congratulating the young driver while patting his back.

This was a heartwarming and selfless gesture from the Australian who did not even finish because of suspected driveshaft issues with his car. The duo of Lando and Ricciardo seems to be getting along better than ever as they fight together for the team. While the papaya camp is in distress and will have to make monumental changes to rank somewhere. However, the first points of the season are a positive step towards glory.

The MCL36 could be facing reliability issues

Towards the front end of the grid, Ferrari, Red Bull, and Mercedes seem to be performing much better. While porpoising and slow pace still troubles Mercedes, they are sooner or later expected to catch up with the two Bulls and Ferrari’s. But the same is not the case with McLaren, who finds a major issue in not just porpoising but also downforce. When asked about what might have caused Danial to retire, Lando Norris said in a post-race interview, “I got no idea, I got no idea, they said they’ll explain it to me after the race.”

“Of course, the team normally are very good with all these things and I don’t know if it was our fault or the back end’s fault, so.”

“We’ll see, from my side everything was good and I just look forward to many more races.”

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Well, it’s good to see how the boys are not losing hope despite facing innumerable issues. And this huge jump is a significant positive for the papaya camp, as they’ll now look forward to doing better.