Lando Norris admitted that his Formula 1 car “feels dreadful” despite McLaren showing some incredible pace during Bahrain free practice.
McLaren put in a strong showing on Friday at the Bahrain International Circuit.
Norris was fastest in FP1, although that isn’t a representative session, but no matter, the papaya duo topped FP2 as well.
Oscar Piastri led the way in the evening FP2 session, just over a tenth clear of Norris, who had almost half a second on the nearest competitor.
Still, Norris wasn’t feeling positive within the McLaren MCL39 cockpit.
The Briton conceded it was “A difficult day, just re-adapting back to the reality of Bahrain, the difficulties of Bahrain, which make it tough.
“It will make it exciting on Sunday, because the degradation is incredible today comparing to the test,” he added.
“It’s kind of weird today, because everything feels dreadful but I think relatively our pace was still in a reasonable place. I think a reasonable Friday.”
Moreover, Norris explained that McLaren’s advantage isn’t a true reflection of its pace compared to the rest of the field.
“I just don’t think they turned up,” he said.
“Everyone just looks at the timesheets, they have no idea about the information on who turns up, who doesn’t… It’s like three-and-a-half, four-tenths around here, so that puts us back in the same position as the Mercedes,” Norris explained, citing third-place man George Russell’s deficit in FP2.
But why was Norris feeling “dreadful” on Friday?
He puts it down to the extreme temperatures and wind, which, in Norris’ mind, makes McLaren’s dominant run in pre-season testing irrelevant.
“It is what it is [the weather], it’s the same challenge for everyone,” Norris said.
“A big challenge is how can you look after the rear tyres in the best way possible.
“We came into this weekend with a lot of our information from the pre-season test, but it’s basically like throw all of that in the bin and just start again, because it’s so different today.”
Piastri ‘pretty happy’ with chart-topping effort
Piastri, meanwhile, after topping FP2, said, “I’m pretty happy, to be honest.”
The Aussie bettered Norris by 0.154s and believes both short and long runs should be good for McLaren as the weekend progresses.
When it comes to the gap to McLaren’s rivals, Piastri admitted he was surprised to see the margin as big as it was, but feels things will tighten up on Saturday.
“I think for it to be quite that big was a bit of a surprise, but I think the others will find a bit more tomorrow – I think it will be pretty close,” he said.
“It’s nice to have it now, but Bahrain is also a track that you can overtake on, and tyre deg is a big, big factor.
“Qualifying here is still going to be important, but I think we need to make sure we’ve got a good race car as well.”
Luckily for Piastri, tyre deg is McLaren’s strong suit, so if he carries his Friday form into Saturday, Sunday could well reward him with a second Grand Prix win of the year.
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