Lando Norris makes his 'mixed' feelings known over McLaren’s high fuel struggles in Vegas - "I could drive a road car quicker at the minute"

Lando Norris was somewhat alarmed at McLaren's long run pace as the running came to an end on Friday. The McLaren driver was a step behind frontrunning for the most part on medium tires throughout FP1 and FP2.

Some of it is down to the track conditions. For the F1 Las Vegas GP, the conditions are very cold with temperatures in the single digits. To add to this, the track surface is often very dirty with the sand from the desert blowing over, making it hard for the cars to generate tire temperatures. This was something pointed out by multiple drivers including Max Verstappen at the end of the day.

Lando Norris also appeared to struggle in the long runs where the pace was not close enough to the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari. With that being said, once the driver put on the medium tire, he moved right to the top of the timesheets after his first attempt.

Talking to the media including Sportskeeda, Lando admitted that the long-run pace was not good while the one-lap pace was still competitive enough. The driver did however feel that there was enough time for the team to fix things as he said,

"It's just very difficult, super low grip. I feel like I could drive a road car quicker than we drive at the minute. Mixed feelings. I think the low-fuel stuff has been okay. The high-fuel, that was shocking. So, yeah, plenty of things to look into. This kind of combinations of things, and when we struggle with the front graining and stuff like that, I'm just not very good at it. So it's always a bit of a struggle for me."

He added,

“But we’ve a good amount of time to work on it. So yeah, two halves really. Good low-fuel and difficult high-fuel.”

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Lando Norris' teammate Piastri unsure of what to make of the day's running

Lando Norris' teammate Oscar Piastri had a somewhat worse outing compared to his teammate. While Lando was still able to shoot up through the timesheet in the qualifying simulation, Oscar was unable to do so.

Looking back at the day, the McLaren driver was unsure what to make of it. The Australian felt the car was there and thereabouts but needed some tidying up. He said,

“Every lap we do, the track's getting better and better. But we knew what to expect this time, at least. It's been an interesting day. I think the pace seems reasonable, just a bit of tidying up. And if you don't get the lap here, then you quickly lose a lot of time with the track evolving so much.”

With Max Verstappen and Red Bull struggling this weekend, Lando Norris would be hoping to bring him as many points as he can to keep an outside chance for the title going into the next race.