“Maybe McLaren has been guilty of not taking Lando Norris seriously enough”
MARK HUGHES
Listening to the McLaren team at the launch of its new Formula 1 racing car, the MCL60, there was a definite sense of controlling expectations for the season ahead. “There are some areas of the car that will be improved by developments in the early stages of the season,” said new team principal Andrea Stella.
“So [although] we are happy we are not entirely happy for the launch car, but optimistic that we should take a good step soon… There are some areas in which we realised a little late to take development in some really strong directions. So, we have not necessarily been able to capitalise on this direction in the very short term.”
That sounds like a technical team in the middle of a re-evaluation of its car design and development direction. Lando Norris has been saying for at least the last two years that there is something fundamentally wrong in the traits of the team’s cars. He’s not been making a fuss about it in public but whenever he’s been questioned specifically about car limitations he has been very consistent in saying that there are traits which have made them very tricky to fully exploit. Daniel Ricciardo once told of being at an airport and bumping into his McLaren predecessor Carlos Sainz who said, “A bit tricky eh?” and that he’d replied, “Yeah, thanks for telling me.” So the underlying problem – aerodynamic in nature – has been there for three years at the very least, over two completely different sets of aero regulations.