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Lando Norris recently made a shocking admission that the McLaren does not suit his driving style. Talking to the media, the young driver admitted that the car under him does not suit the way he drives and that leads to him driving around the issues of the car and not the way that comes naturally to him.
The revelation does come as a major surprise because, in the last three years, Norris has been one of the top drivers in F1. He has secured multiple podiums, put the McLaren on the pole in Russia, almost won his first race and most importantly spearheaded the campaign for the team.
Lando Norris has been the lead driver and extracting the most from the machinery in the last few seasons and the fact that he's been doing this despite not driving the car with a style that comes naturally to him speaks volumes of his talent.
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As quoted by PlanetF1.com, Lando Norris was questioned what were the areas that the team needed to work on the car. The driver revealed that neither he nor teammate Oscar Piastri have been comfortable with the car under them.
Citing that former teammate Daniel Ricciardo also struggled with the peculiar manner in which the car needs to be driven, Norris said:
“I mean, it’s not just my liking, it’s also Oscar’s because we have pretty similar comments. It’s the same as last year, even when Daniel [Ricciardo] was driving, we had a lot of similar comments every day, every weekend. It’s just difficult to describe, I feel like I’m having a debrief now! But it’s just… you have to drive one way. But it’s also a way that I don’t want to drive, or would like to drive."
He added:
“I know it wasn’t a thing that, say, Daniel liked to drive the car that way. But, yeah, I don’t like to drive the car the way that I have to drive it. I feel like it isn’t to my strengths at all. I want to be able to carry minimum speed and ‘U’ a corner. The last thing I can do in the world now is ‘U’ a corner. I have to ‘V’ the corner more than ever. I have never been the biggest fan of doing that, and I don’t like it that much.
Lando Norris highlights the strengths of the McLaren
Talking about the strengths of the car, Lando Norris was quite appreciative of the braking stability of the McLaren and how the car tends to do very well in wet weather conditions. He said:
“We’re very good at braking, in straight-line braking, which is why we were so quick in the wet, at times. I wouldn’t say we’re quick in the wet as a general note, but quick in the wet when braking is a big key – like in Monaco. It builds tyre temperature, builds confidence. That’s when we’re quick – we’re not quick in the corners when it’s wet. So there are certain things which allow us to be competitive."
The 2023 F1 season is on the verge of proving to be a turnaround for Lando Norris and McLaren. The team has been very impressive since the major upgrades have been fitted to the car.
Norris has even secured a P2 finish in Silverstone and looked very impressive doing that as well. It will however be interesting to see what kind of performance Norris can unleash when he admits that the car is congruous to his driving style.
