Lando Norris comes clean on key weakness that McLaren is battling with during the F1 pre-season test

Lando Norris has pointed out rear instability as something that McLaren appears to be struggling with during the F1 pre-season test. The Brit turned heads on Thursday with his long run that was run when both Charles Leclerc in his Ferrari and Kimi Antonelli in his Mercedes were also running.

Looking at the lap times and the quite visible gulf in terms of how the cars looked on track, there were suggestions that McLaren had the best car on the grid, especially with Lando Norris behind the wheel. Norris, on his part, has kept his cards close to his chest.

The Brit has more or less kept his cards close to his chest as the driver gets ready to put together a more formidable challenge for the title in 2025. Talking about his feelings with the car, Lando Norris did, however, admit that while the car more or less felt similar to how it had in the past, the rear instability is something that McLaren was keeping an eye on. He told the media, including Sportskeeda,

“It feels similar, which is a good start. Nothing’s been majorly addressed, let’s say, it’s not like that much has changed. We’ve just tried to make the car quick all around and add more load. We still want to try and focus on some areas more than others. We’ve struggled a bit more with the rear than what we would have liked over yesterday and today, but it’s still early days.”

It must be noted that Bahrain has never been McLaren's favorite track and the cars built by the squad have not often suited the conditions.

McLaren boss echoes Lando Norris' sentiments

McLaren boss Andrea Stella echoed what Lando Norris was saying in terms of feedback on the car. Stella did however say that the feedback was more or less on the expected lines as the track temperatures and the conditions would have this effect on the car. He said,

“Looking at the track layout, looking at some kind of demand associated with the low grip, for instance, and the high macro roughness, big demand on traction; we have a justification as to why our car wasn’t necessarily working very well at this track. We have worked over the last couple of years to try and improve on those requirements that are needed in circuits of this kind, where you have tight corners, for example."

He added,

“We think we have made some progress [while] trying at the same time to retain some of the strengths that we had developed over the years, for instance in some medium speed corners.”

Lando Norris will be hoping to put together a stronger second attempt at fighting for the title after the first one in 2024 was underwhelming at best.