Norris: McLaren in the dark regarding brake issue fix

Lando Norris says McLaren has worked hard to solve the brake issues that impacted its pre-season test in Bahrain but won't know until Friday's running if the problem has been fixed.

McLaren's new MCL36 suffered from high brake temperatures last week at Sakhir that limited the team's mileage as Norris was only able to conduct short runs on any given day, although the introduction of modified parts on the final day of testing slightly mitigated the issue.

The Woking-based outfit subsequently fitted a reprofiled brake cooling duct to its car on Thursday as well as a slightly larger brake drum.

But only time will tell if the MCL36's brake temperature problem has been entirely or perhaps only partly solved.

"We’ll see in a few hours’ time," commented Norris on Friday in Bahrain ahead of F1's first free practice session of the year.

"The team’s done an excellent job in trying to get as many parts here as possible, things to fix those problems. But to a certain extent we don’t know how well they’re going to work.

"We are literally going to have to put them on the car and go out and drive with them to understand just how good they are and whether it’s enough or too much.

"Preferably it’s on the side of too much and we can come back and make modifications from there.

"There could be a chance of either: it could be a perfect race with no issues, and of course that’s the ideal world, or it could be a race where we have to still manage many things.

"We don’t know just yet and we have to see when we get out on track."

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Daniel Ricciardo, who didn't drive last week in Bahrain as a result of testing positive for Covid, believes it may take the better part of Friday's sessions and multiple long runs for McLaren to properly understand the extent of its progress on the brake front.

"I know pretty much every day of the test there were modifications happening and on day three there was a good step of progress made," said Ricciardo.

"Since then, we’ve had some more modifications to trial today. We’re in a confident place but there may still be some management."

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