McLaren had a complicated Friday at the Formula 1 Monaco GP weekend, and Lando Norris did not hide his concern about the team’s performance. In addition to facing pace issues, the Briton also lost important track time after a car failure during the activities.
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Norris finished FP1 in sixth position but dropped to 19th place in FP2. The British driver assessed that the team is far from the main competitors and acknowledged that it will be necessary to find performance in practically all sectors of the circuit to react throughout the weekend.
“It was a complicated day. Clearly, we are lacking pace and need to find time all around the lap,” said the McLaren driver. The Briton also emphasized the importance of every minute of activity on a circuit like Monte Carlo, where confidence is usually built gradually throughout the practice sessions.
The current champion particularly regretted the time lost after the technical problem that interrupted his participation: “It was frustrating to lose track time today, because that is always very important here in Monaco. The car simply shut down, so we need to investigate what happened,” he explained.
The failure increased the challenges for the team, which was already struggling to keep up with competitors. According to Norris, the engineers will have a lot of work ahead to try and find solutions before the qualifying session.
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“We will work hard overnight to try and extract more performance from the car,” he stated. Still, the driver was realistic when analyzing McLaren’s prospects for the rest of the weekend in the Principality.
“Realistically, it will be difficult to compete at the front of the grid this weekend, based on our situation compared to the competition,” he said. Despite the unfavorable scenario, Norris made it clear that the below-expected performance is not a surprise for the team.
The Briton highlighted that, although the result of the first sessions was not as desired, the focus now will be to understand the car’s limitations and seek a recovery: “It’s not necessarily a surprise, but it’s not where we want to be. We will work hard to understand what is missing and try to recover as much as possible for tomorrow,” he added.
With the qualifying session approaching and grid position being decisive in Monaco, McLaren arrives on Saturday pressured to find quick answers to reduce the gap to rivals and avoid an even more complicated weekend.
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