Lando Norris is convinced that this weekend’s Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix will showcase to what extent McLaren has rectified its slow-speed cornering weakness.
McLaren enacted a remarkable turnaround last term to ascend from occasional Q1 eliminations to being in a regular place to score podiums via mid-season updates.
But while it was Red Bull’s closest contender on high-speed tracks, the Woking-based squad continued to be restricted when winding low-speed turns were in the mix.
However, McLaren’s latest upgrades in Miami showed a marked improvement in the slow-speed sections and Lando Norris capitalised to land his maiden F1 success.
McLaren’s positive showing in Monaco led to boss Andrea Stella contending that its new parts had over-delivered on expectations regarding slow-speed performance.
Norris, though, has argued that the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve’s long straights and low-speed traction zones will provide a real gauge of McLaren’s lower-speed potential.
“I would say that is still our biggest weakness,” Norris told F1. “And yes, we were good in Monaco, but there you can only concentrate on the slow corners.
“If you have to focus on slow and medium-fast at the same time, then we have more problems finding the balance.
“Monaco is just Monaco. I don’t think we have completely sorted out our difficulties in slow corners, we still have to improve if we want to keep up with Ferrari.”
But the Briton has accepted McLaren has made huge strides in addressing the MCL38’s launch-spec vulnerabilities and is optimistic it will continue to close the gap.
“We have improved and this is probably one of the areas where we have improved the most, which is why we have managed to be a bit more consistent this year,” he said.
“We are clearly closer to where we need to be compared to the teams around us.”
“I think there are still many things we want to improve and where we need to make progress.
“But I’m confident, given how much we’ve improved as a team over the last year, that we can take on even more.”
However, with the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve placing a reliance on a compliant car to extract time, Stella stated McLaren has “work to do” to improve the MCL38’s ride.
“We are not entirely satisfied with the behaviour on kerbs, on bumps,” Stella told Autosport.
“It will require some more fundamental development rather than simply adaptation of what we have available now in the car.
“Clearly we play with set-up, but we don’t seem to be able to achieve the same ride and kerbing performance that we see, qualitatively, on some other cars.
“And our drivers are pretty vocal that some other cars seem to be able to ride kerbs with more confidence.”
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