After claiming a superb second place at Sunday’s British Grand Prix, Lando Norris has warned that while the result was spectacular, McLaren have a lot of work to do on what he bluntly described as a poor and, at times, terrible car. McLaren have made a remarkable turnaround after being off the pace when the season opened and delivered an extraordinary result at Silverstone, with Norris second and his teammate, Oscar Piastri, finishing fourth.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won the race, extending his lead in the drivers’ championship over his teammate, Sergio Pérez, to 99 points, but behind him the McLarens were the surprise package. Norris passed Verstappen, who was on pole, to take the lead at turn one to the delight of the home crowd.
The Dutchman retook the lead on lap five but Norris was well in control of second, notably quicker than the following Mercedes, Aston Martins and Ferraris. Indeed, he went on to successfully defend the spot from Lewis Hamilton, who could not make it past the McLaren and subsequently described their car as a “rocket ship”. It was a major achievement for the team at their home grand prix, where, notably, they have not put a driver on the podium since Hamilton left at the end of 2012.
Nonetheless, Norris counselled caution. “We do have a poor car and I would say pretty terrible in the slow-speed corners, extremely difficult to drive,” said the 23-year-old. “I feel as if we’re getting excited and I accept that, but we’re going to go to a couple of tracks coming up where I’m sure people are going to be saying: ‘What have you done now? Like, how has it got so bad all of a sudden?’.”
The next race in two weeks’ time is at the Hungaroring, a track with predominantly low- to medium-speed corners through which the McLaren struggles. It is unlikely they will be able to repeat their Silverstone feat. However the turnaround the team has achieved is marked.
Andrea Stella, the team principal, was appointed to the role in December of last year. Before the season began, he conceded the car was far from where they wanted it to be aerodynamically, off the pace and hard to handle. In March, they reorganised their senior technical structure, including dispensing with the services of the technical director, James Key.
Stella said to make such a step forward at Silverstone is unexpected but that the team remains focused on their plan to join the fight at the front within two years. “Once we started to develop the car our expectation was by the end of the season we could fight with the four quickest teams,” he said. “So it is a bit of a surprise we find ourselves in this position now.
“Our expectation is for McLaren to compete for podiums next season and for victories in the following season, this is the long-term vision.”
