Lando Norris has admitted that McLaren’s competitive gains have helped him to accept that the team’s 2025 Formula 1 car doesn’t suit his natural driving tendencies.
McLaren has built upon the advantage that it ended the previous season with as its MCL39 has drawn widespread recognition as the benchmark package on the grid.
But while the team has raised the level the rest must strive to match, Norris has revealed that he is still having to adapt his own inputs to maximise the car’s potential.
The Briton has long been outspoken about the Woking-based squad’s machines containing particular characteristics that make them challenging to drive on the limit.
That has sharpened since McLaren’s return to the pinnacle, as the MCL39’s superior traction on corner exit isn’t compatible with his innate desire to attack the entries.
Norris, though, has divulged how his approach now resolves around ensuring that he adapts to the hardware at his disposal rather than issuing demands on the team.
“I’ve got to a point where I’ve just accepted that you can’t have really a car that suits your driving,” Norris told media including Motorsport Week.
“I stopped maybe asking so much for exactly what I want and more just willing to do whatever makes the car quicker.
“You know, it is probably a tricky car to drive and to put together laps. But clearly, it’s taken a step forward to last year.
“But then it’s my job to drive whatever car I get given in the end of the day. That’s why I’m here. It’s why McLaren wanted me because they believe I can drive it in a better way than others can.
“It’s similar characteristics [to last year’s car], and some of those characteristics I don’t like and do not suit the way I want to drive in an attacking way.
“It doesn’t suit me in terms of me wanting to push the entries and push the braking.
“It’s very weak, I would say, from that point of view. So not what I like, but at the same time, some of it is down to the adaptation of needing to change a little bit my driving styles every year.
“The car I drive this year is very different to what a McLaren was a few years ago, clearly, because we were at the back and now we’re at the front.
“But I think it’s unique in certain aspects and obviously, we have our strengths and weaknesses.
“And whenever someone has been at McLaren and gone to another team, they’ve said how hard or odd McLaren has been to drive, whether it was Daniel or it was Carlos.
“It’s all I’m used to. But I’ll just drive whatever car I have to drive as long as it’s fighting for a win and quick enough to fight for a win, then I’m happy to just drive what I get given.”
Norris reveals McLaren development dilemma
Norris conceded that McLaren tailoring its development to provide him with the sharp front end he likes would come at a cost to the car’s overall performance ceiling.
“I think the thing is, the aero guys and girls back in the factory, they just try and find lap time and you’ve got to balance how you work the car,” he elaborated.
“At times you can try and find a more peaky car. So if it works at the peak, it’s better, but it might be trickier to drive and worse in windy conditions those kind of things.
“Or do you try and get rid of some of that peak grip and just make it a slightly more all-rounded car? And you’ve got to play with this balance, because it’s easy.
“It’s difficult to get both, and you’ve got to choose what direction you want. I definitely think some of what I want from a car, first of all, it’s just very hard to get.
“That’s probably the best answer for it is just to have, for me, a good front at apex.
“That’s kind of all I feel like I want, but I very rarely ever have what I need from the car from that perspective. The car can still win races.
“It’s not like if I don’t have what I need, it’s bad. I can still get the most out of the car if I don’t have what I want. But there’s just compromises.
“If I do want a bit more front end at mid-corner, at the minute, we can only get that if we compromise low speed or high-speed performance or windy condition.
“There’s just so many compromises you’ve got to make. At the end of the day, you just want the best all-rounded car.”
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