McLaren drivers deliver initial verdict on MCL38 F1 car

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri delivered a promising initial verdict after driving McLaren’s 2024 Formula 1 challenger for the first time at Silverstone on Wednesday.

McLaren is aiming to sustain the momentum from last year where mid-season upgrades took it from battling to score points to being a regular contender for podium finishes.

The Woking-based squad launched its MCL38 car before utilising one of its two filming days to shakedown its latest creation at the annual home of the British Grand Prix.

Both drivers took advantage of the revised regulation permitting 200km of running to grant Norris and Piastri the chance to test drive their new machine for the first time.

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While the event was held in wet conditions driving on unique Pirelli tyres rendering it unrepresentative, Norris was enthused with the handling of the car from the outset.

Asked about his impressions of McLaren’s launch-spec 2024 car, Norris told Planet F1: “It’s hard to say just because it was wet here.

“You don’t really get that many laps, and it’s on tyres that aren’t even the actual tyres we use, so it’s difficult to compare too many things.

“But the main thing is I jumped in and felt very comfortable straight away, no surprises or anything, so comfortable and could just push it to the limit on just a couple of little areas.

“But, honestly, not a lot more to say than that.

“It’s always just a very different thing when you get on track for the first time in Bahrain, depending on weather conditions and all of those things.

“So we have to wait till we get to Bahrain to really understand how they will compare to one another.”

Piastri is gearing up for his sophomore F1 campaign following a stellar maiden season and echoed his team-mate’s comments about the seamlessness of the occasion.

But the Australian also warned that McLaren can’t be assured of the progress it has made compared to last year until its car is stacked up alongside the competition on the track.

“Yeah, no surprises today really,” Piastri added. “Everything felt pretty comfortable and went smoothly which was good.

“But you never really know what you’ve got until you compare it to other people.

“So I think we’ll have to wait a little bit longer to see what we’ve really got but I think, as these kinds of days go, that was smooth sailing.”

McLaren boss Andrea Stella admitted that the team had been unable to address certain directions in development but revealed that upgrades will arrive in the coming months.

“These areas – rather than being specific I will keep it relatively general – but they effectively have to do with improving the aerodynamic performance, improving the mechanical side and the interaction with tyres,” he told media including Motorsport Week.

“So in all these three key areas. There’s a few projects that we had started and saw they had potential, but we just couldn’t finalize them in time to have it on the launch car so they will very likely become updates for the early part of the season.”