Lando Norris admitted to having struggled in Friday’s FP2 session in Las Vegas, the McLaren charger dealing with a multitude of challenges in an environment that he believes is unsuited for his MCL60.
The Woking-based outfit has been Red Bull’s main contender in recent races, with Norris claiming five podiums in the last six races.
In a bid to uphold its form while attempting to inch closer to Red Bull, McLaren introduced in La Vegas a revamped rear wing that features a single-beam wing design directly inspired by the similar aero element on the bulls’ dominate RB19.
However, the update did little to boost Norris and teammate Oscar Piastri’s performance in FP2, with both drivers concluding their session outside of the top-ten, respectively P11 and P14.
Asked about his outlook for Saturday, Norris wasn’t brimming with positivity.
“At the minute not great,” he said. “I think a long way off where we’ve been the last few weekends.
“But probably as expected you know, similar to where we were in Monza and other low downforce circuits.
“So a struggle at the minute and I’m sure we can find some things into tomorrow and plenty of things for me to work on, but umm, yeah, not looking too good.”
In addition to Las Vegas’ low downforce layout, an environment that hasn’t suited McLaren’s car this season, Norris cited the “tricky and tough” running conditions that had weighed on his performance.
“Not an easy circuit, you know, poor grip, easy to destroy the tyres quite quickly which is what we were doing,” said the 24-year-old.
“Just not my best day, struggled to get comfortable in the car, I wouldn’t say uncomfortable, just struggled to get a nice balance and find consistency and things like that. Not a great start.”
Norris felt that his McLaren had especially struggled on the high-fuel runs conducted in the session. But oddly, his teammate Oscar Piastri disagreed.
“Yeah, I think it was a bit more competitive in the long run that we did,” said the Aussie, who ended his day 0.123s behind Norris. “Still not where we wanted to be, but baby steps”
©McLaren
After the cancellation of FP1 and the lengthy delay of the second practice, Piastri said that “it was nice to finally get out on track”.
But he acknowledged that Vegas’ circuit was “very very slippery” and a “pretty difficult track.”
“Tyres were pretty difficult out there with a lot of graining so something to try and look at for tomorrow,” he added.
“Worse on the soft, you know, it seems quite mixed for everyone out there, some people having graining, some not, so we’ll see what we can do.
“Ferrari look very strong, but it seems quite mixed. I think everyone will do a lot of analysis at some point when we get some sleep first.
“But yeah definitely some things to look out for tomorrow but I think we looked better as the session went on.”
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