Lando Norris says McLaren’s failure to secure a spot on the front row in Sprint qualifying at the Chinese Grand Prix was the result of its car being too difficult to drive in windy conditions.
Relatively high winds during Friday’s running had an impact on how challenging it was for drivers to be consistent, as they dealt with a crosswind on the long back straight and a headwind into Turn 1. McLaren had delivered a number of laps that marked it out as the team to beat at different stages of FP1 and Sprint qualifying, but in SQ3 Oscar Piastri could only set the third-fastest time and Norris ended up sixth after running wide at the Turn 14 hairpin.
“I made a mistake — I locked up in the last corner,” Norris said. “Just not quick enough, simply. It’s just our difficulties that we’ve been struggling with showed a lot more today. Nothing more than that, honestly — too many mistakes, but just too difficult of a car to drive.
“Throughout the day we’ve been struggling a bit with the front locking and struggling a lot in the last corner with all the tailwind. So a lot more aligned with Bahrain, say. It’s just a lot windier and when the wind’s blowing, we struggle a lot more.”
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As for his errors, Norris put them down to him overcompensating for the car’s shortcomings.
“I think both myself and Oscar struggled more, clearly me more than him,” he said. “So, just pushing a bit hard to try and make up for not quite being quick enough.”
Based on the lap times the two McLaren drivers delivered in practice and earlier in qualifying, Norris believes improvements on Saturday are more likely to come from him himself rather than making further setup changes.
“That’s more me rather than the car,” he said. “I can’t make the car perfect, but no, this was me just trying to push a bit too much. I just need to back off a little bit and not try to push too much. I think the car’s still good and in a good window — maybe not good enough for pole, but we can definitely go forward.”
Teammate Piastri agreed with Norris’ assessment, but he also felt the team did not take the right strategic approach to its tire usage at the end of Friday’s Sprint qualifying session.
“SQ1 and SQ2 felt good and then SQ3 we tried something a bit different and went out much earlier and tried two laps, which I’m not sure was the best thing in the end,” Piastri said. “I think it’s something we need to have a look at. But I think the pace in the car is still very strong and I’m still confident to fight from third tomorrow.
“It’s been difficult. I think with the track surface, it’s got a lot of grip, but it’s very peaky and I think it’s been pretty tough all day to just keep on top of the car.
“I honestly think we did a good job of trying to tame it for Sprint qualifying, just maybe got the run plan a bit wrong. It’s been an interesting challenge. The group’s been a lot better than last season, which is nice, but I think there’s some things we can do better tomorrow.”