Lando Norris, a British driver for McLaren, believes that the potential of the McLaren Formula 1 car for the 2024 season should not be judged based on its performance in the upcoming Bahrain Grand Prix. In recent years, McLaren has faced difficulties at the start of the season, often being eliminated in the early stages of qualifying. However, after a strong performance in 2023, where they consistently challenged Red Bull, expectations for McLaren have increased. Despite this, Norris denied that McLaren will be able to compete for podiums right away, considering the progress made by Red Bull and Ferrari. Norris explained that it is difficult to determine their position in relation to other teams until they have completed the Friday practice and qualifying sessions. He acknowledged that McLaren made significant progress last year, but their performance was inconsistent, sometimes being competitive with Red Bull and other times falling behind Mercedes and Ferrari. Norris also mentioned that Bahrain has historically been a challenging circuit for McLaren, and it would be premature to make judgments about their season based solely on their performance in this race. He suggested that it would take a few more races to accurately assess where each team stands compared to the others.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella had warned before the tests that the team failed to address certain areas of improvement with their latest creation, the MCL38. Norris echoed these observations, indicating that McLaren’s lack of performance in low-speed situations will persist compared to their competitors, despite the progress made by the team.
“So, a combination of factors, things that we still need to address if we want to ensure that we have taken a step forward, which I believe we have,” he continued. “We have made the car faster, and that is evident in all the data we have collected.
“However, certain obstacles have prevented us from progressing as much as we would like, both individually and as a team. Furthermore, some of these issues were particularly evident here in Bahrain due to the characteristics of the circuit.
“I am still confident that when we visit certain circuits where we were very successful last year, such as Suzuka, we can still have one of the best-performing cars. However, Bahrain has never been a suitable track for our car.
“That is why we may face more difficulties here, but I am confident that we can overcome them as the season progresses.”
