McLaren crew boss Andrea Stella has revealed they’ve made some “changes” to their F1 automotive to assist Lando Norris really feel extra relaxed when driving.
For the reason that begin of the 2025 F1 season, Norris has complained in regards to the unpredictability of this 12 months’s McLaren challenger.
Regardless of Norris’ complaints, he’s main the F1 drivers’ championship, one level away from Max Verstappen.
McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri loved a decisive edge over Norris in remaining apply, topping the timesheets by over six-tenths.
Talking in Friday’s press convention in Bahrain, Stella confirmed that Norris has struggled with a “specific part of driving the automotive.”
“I believe on Lando’s aspect, there’s particularly a specific part of driving the automotive that doesn’t make him fully comfy,” Stella defined.
“I believe we’ve achieved an excellent understanding of what that’s. It will be inappropriate to share the small print, however let me say that even for this race, we’ve made some changes to the automotive – going again to some options that we expect might enhance the predictability of the automotive in relation to Lando’s driving enter.
“So it’s really an attention-grabbing weekend even from this standpoint, and we look ahead to seeing what we are going to be taught.”
Piastri “extra assured” in qualifying
For Piastri, it’s been a formidable turnaround, significantly over one lap.
Piastri was overwhelmed 20-4 within the qualifying head-to-head final 12 months, with Norris dominating the teammate battle on a Saturday.
Whereas Norris leads this 12 months’s battle 2-1 after three races, Piastri has proved to be a detailed match.
It may be argued that Piastri has regarded sooner in any respect three weekends – however has did not maximise the tempo of the MCL39.
Talking about Piastri’s enchancment, Stella mentioned: “I believe we see that Oscar is simply extra assured in qualifying. He’s simply extra able to placing issues collectively. I believe he has extra consciousness, which comes with expertise, which comes with all of the evaluation that has been occurring throughout the winter. So we see a stronger Oscar, like we see, as ordinary, a really robust Lando.
“However for me, once more coming again to the competitiveness of McLaren, what I see – and I nonetheless take a look at various telemetry myself – is 2 drivers that push one another and choose from one another. When you see Free Follow 1, they’re virtually complementary as to the place they go quick and gradual. To allow them to see various alternatives.
“After which I see the synergy. And the synergy means an elevation of the sport. So for me, if something, that’s what I see has principally modified in comparison with the previous.
“We are able to see it as automotive efficiency, however for me it’s a mix of automotive efficiency and what the drivers are capable of obtain, elevating their very own video games.”
