Lando Norris says McLaren can now go 20km/h faster down Monza’s straights compared to its 2023 Formula 1 car after topping Italian Grand Prix qualifying.
Norris claimed his fifth career F1 pole at Monza, with team-mate Oscar Piastri second ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell, the Ferrari pair and Lewis Hamilton.
Max Verstappen was the lead Red Bull driver in seventh – his lowest qualifying at Monza since 2020.
This is a shock given the straight-line aerodynamic efficiency and DRS prowess that are key to being quick at Monza were previously important strengths of the Red Bull package in the new ground-effect era since 2022.
This is of less importance than at the more technical Spa track that traditionally has been paired with Monza in terms of where certain cars are strong or weak, due to the Italian track’s comparative lack of high-speed corners and turns overall.
When asked by Autosport if tow tactics had been key to McLaren’s result at Monza on Saturday, Norris explained how instead “we were quick on our own” due to the work the team has done to improve aero efficiency.
McLaren qualified down in seventh and ninth at the same event last year, with Piastri ahead and Norris struggling to pass Williams driver Alex Albon in the race, which he called "probably one of our worst races last year” ahead of this weekend’s action commencing.
“When you compare this year to last year, we’re like 20km/h or something quicker in the straights,” Norris said in the post-qualifying press conference.
“It’s a lot. Last year we were pretty shocking in the straight, which came as a bit of a surprise, but it shows the difference between when you’re not prepared to when you’re prepared for a race, where we were last year to where we are now.
However, Norris played down the impact of McLaren’s major Zandvoort upgrade as being key to its Monza performance so far this term, with Piastri also highlighting how “the baseline of the car was really kind of set earlier in the year and we’ve been able to gradually improve it a bit”.
Norris added: “For sure – every little counts. We’ve definitely been taking some smaller steps forward, but some of the upgrades we’ve had have been track-specific.
“The rear wing that we had, which was the main part of the upgrade last weekend, we’ve run it again here. So, it’s not like what worked perfectly well there works here so.
“We had that, but we also had the rear wing again this weekend.
“So, it’s specific things, but it’s not like revolutionised the car or made the car feel like it’s a lot better.
“It’s just a bit more efficient. It’s smaller things, but smaller things make big differences in the end.
“If you have one or two smaller snaps [less] over a single lap, you can gain half a tenth, one-tenth, quite quickly because the tyres are in a better condition, the temperature is less, and things like that.
“It definitely helped, but I think less than maybe what people expected. Like, a lot of parts but nothing which means, ‘we’re going to be 0.3s quicker all of a sudden’.
“So, steps forward, but we need more still. As well as we’re doing, we believe we can do more and I think when we go to our debriefs and stuff, there’s plenty of stuff that Oscar and I complain of and would like to be improved and we’re working hard to continue to try and do that.”
