Before the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League, Lando Norris showed an impressive performance in the McLaren during the sprint qualifying of the Miami Grand Prix. He secured first place in both SQ1 and SQ2, and although he dropped to ninth in SQ3, his pace remained strong. In fact, his time in SQ2 on medium tires was even faster than Max Verstappen’s pole time in a Red Bull on soft tires. With Verstappen struggling with the balance of his RB20, it seemed like an easy win for Norris and McLaren. However, things took a turn for the worse.
Norris admitted to making mistakes and pushing too hard, leading to a disappointing result. His lap was messy, with errors in turn 1 and a compromised entry into the back straight. Despite being fastest in the final sector, he had already lost 0.7 seconds in the middle sector. Although Norris took full responsibility for his performance, there were contributing factors at play.
One factor was the overheating of the soft tires. Verstappen had already faced this issue in FP1, needing several laps to cool the tires and control the temperatures. Norris faced a similar issue during his lap in Q3, with the rear wheels easily spinning and potentially being too hot. Once the tires exceed a critical temperature limit, they cannot be brought back to optimal performance during a qualifying session. Norris had not used the soft tires until his SQ3 lap, and the track temperature was above 45 degrees Celsius. This lack of experience with the tires and the high temperature may have caught McLaren off guard.
Comparing Norris’ return with Verstappen’s reveals a significant difference in approach. Verstappen’s engineer closely monitored tire temperatures during the warm-up lap, ensuring they stayed within the desired range. Verstappen’s warm-up lap was 11 seconds slower than Norris’, emphasizing the level of caution taken to prepare the tires. McLaren’s focus on testing the correlation of their updates during FP1 may have contributed to the neglect in preparing the tires for SQ3.
Despite the disappointment, the upgraded McLaren showed great potential. Norris’ time in SQ2 with medium tires was faster than Sergio Perez in a Red Bull by 0.268 seconds. Considering Verstappen’s average advantage in qualifying over Perez this season, the new McLaren could have been a strong competitor against Verstappen if everything had gone smoothly.
Looking ahead to the rest of the weekend, McLaren now has a better understanding of how to handle soft tires in qualifying. However, soft tires are unlikely to be a popular choice for race day. A one-stop race is expected using a combination of medium and hard tires, and unless Red Bull improves their setup for Verstappen, McLaren could potentially be faster with the medium tires. The competition is still open, and McLaren has the chance to bounce back.
