Lando Norris reveals McLaren upgrade woes after US GP qualifying disappointment

Lando Norris has highlighted balance and set-up issues with his McLaren MCL38 F1 car during qualifying for the United States Grand Prix sprint race at the Circuit of the Americas. However, he was quite happy with the fourth position, considering that “it could have been a lot worse”.

Given Norris’ recent string of wins and pole positions, finishing between the two Ferrari drivers struck him as “shocking”. He was only 0.25 seconds behind Max Verstappen, who took pole position.

The McLaren’s recent upgrades may require further tweaking or tweaking, especially given Mercedes’ George Russell overtook Norris for second, with Charles Leclerc securing third. Norris was fourth and sixth in SQ1 and SQ2 respectively, behind the fastest times of each session by just over two-tenths of a second. In SQ3, he once again fell short by a similar margin, missing out on a front-row start for the USGP sprint race.

Speaking to the media after qualifying in the sprint, the McLaren driver said:

“(It wasn’t) very good. P4, so not a great day. I’ve been struggling all day, honestly, with balance and set-up.

“In a way I’m happy with P4 because I felt like it could have been a lot worse, but my lap was shocking. It wasn’t a terrible day and it could have been worse, but it could have been better. But I’ll take it.”

Norris then emphasized that the changes in the new update package were not felt in his MCL38, suggesting that “It’s not a new package, it’s pretty much the same.”

With all eyes on the US GP sprint race to see if McLaren can challenge Red Bull this time around, Norris was asked if he had an idea of ​​his race pace. He said:

“No, not really.

“I hope to push forward, that’s my plan, but at pace I think we’re where we deserve to be today, so my plan is to push forward, but I have no idea how much we can.”

Speaking of the Papaya team’s improvements to the car, the list of replaced parts is quite extensive: from brake duct modifications to upgrades to the front wing, front suspension and a new beam wing designed to reduce the drag Speaking about the upgrades, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said:

“After a busy few weeks back at the factory to consolidate and strengthen our championship campaign, we now head to Austin for the first of two triples. We’re just six races from the end of the season, but there’s still plenty to go many teams will bring new things in these final races, so we expect a close competition, but as always, we keep our heads down, focus on ourselves and constantly seek points in our pursuit of the two titles.”