Norris notes McLaren progress but MCL40 ‘still a handful’

Lando Norris arrived in Barcelona with a point to prove after McLaren’s bruising weekend in Monaco, and while the Circuit de Catalunya offered signs of recovery, the Briton made it clear that the team’s underlying problems remain far from solved.

On the surface, the mood in the McLaren camp was noticeably brighter. Norris topped Friday’s second practice and secured fourth on the grid in qualifying, a result that looked respectable given the fierce pace shown by Mercedes and Ferrari.

Yet beneath the encouraging numbers, the McLaren driver was still wrestling with a machine he believes remains frustratingly inconsistent.

For Norris, Barcelona was less a breakthrough and more a reminder of how circuit characteristics can disguise a car’s weaknesses.

“I think we took a good step forward,” he said when asked about his session. “Nothing slipped away – it came towards us, we got better.

“It's just the others pushed a bit more, and just look at their onboard and look at our onboard, I think it's quite easy to see the difference of kind of balance and ease of producing lap time.

“I'm very happy with today. I know the gap was small to P3 but he's [Kimi Antonelli] in a car that can go three-tenths quicker and I'm in a car that can maybe go half a tenth quicker, maybe one. I'm satisfied with today and we should be happy as a team.”

While the qualifying result offered encouragement, Norris was careful not to confuse competitiveness with genuine progress.

The MCL40 may have looked stronger around the sweeping curves of Barcelona-Catalunya, but he insisted the car’s temperament has not fundamentally changed.

Fast track, same problems

The Spaniard circuit’s flowing nature helped mask some of McLaren’s most stubborn weaknesses, particularly those exposed so brutally on Monaco’s slow-speed streets.

According to Norris, the improvement was more about where the car was racing than what had changed underneath it.

"Still quite a handful in a lot of places, very unpredictable in places,” he said. “I think we can just be more committed with things. Monaco, so many corners, we just couldn't commit to corners. We were afraid of the rear, then the front, and it's also just a different characteristic.

“Here, the minimum is third gear, probably still like 100 and something kph, and everything else is fourth, fifth, sixth gears, corners. Monaco is all second, first, third, so we're in a completely different regime.

“It's just the car didn't perform in slow-speed corners, and still doesn't. It's not like we've improved anything from that side, It's just the width of the track and how long and flowing these corners suit us much better.”

That assessment paints a revealing picture of McLaren’s current challenge. The team can shine when conditions align with the car’s strengths, but the search for a package that performs everywhere remains elusive.

A difficult reality check

Perhaps the biggest frustration for Norris is that McLaren is no longer operating at the level it enjoyed last season. After several years of dependable competitiveness, the team is being forced to confront a far less comfortable reality.

“For a few years now, we've not had any, like outliers,” he said. “We won Monaco last year, so I think it's tough for us to kind of realise we're not at the same level as what we were.

“We don't have a car that is just good everywhere. We have a car that is pretty good in Miami, pretty reasonable in Canada, not bad here, but shocking in Monaco. And for us to be three-tenths off here, I think is just a good effort, considering we were six/seven last weekend, and that's not the best thing.

“We're happy, it's P4, but the other guys did good laps, but we were definitely unable to achieve that.”

Those comments underline a growing concern inside Woking: McLaren is no longer measuring itself against its own improvements, but against rivals that appear capable of unlocking more performance when it matters most.

Even in Barcelona, where the car looked far healthier than it did a week earlier, Norris believed the teams ahead still had another level available. And that reality could become even more painful over a race distance.

“I don't think we're as good on tyre deg as Mercedes,” he said. “I think they're probably the leaders in tyre deg, I think we're good comparing to others, but also the Ferrari is incredible in the corners.

• Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix - Qualifying results

“They're still class leaders in cornering speeds, they probably lose two/three tenths in drag and a little bit in power, which is some of their own doing, but at the same time, to beat a car that's three tenths quicker in qualifying is a big task tomorrow in a race where you almost want to drive slower than what you can achieve.

“They can drive three tenths slower, look after the tyres, and still be quicker than us. I need to push an extra tenth overheat the tyres, push more than them to try and get past them.

“So I think it's a race where you don't want to be over-pushing, but it's a race where we're going to have to, if we want more than P4. So we'll fight, but I think we'll also be realistic in what our opportunities are.”

Barcelona may have delivered a welcome bounce-back after Monaco’s misery, but Norris’ verdict was unmistakable.

McLaren has moved forward, yet the MCL40 remains a car capable of inspiring confidence one moment and sowing doubt the next. For now, the progress is real — but so is the frustration.

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