Lando Norris pointed to a persistent straight-line speed deficit after qualifying seventh for the Formula 1 Bahrain GP in Malaysia.
Norris missed out on top grid spots during qualifying for the F1 Bahrain GP in Malaysia. He ended the Q3 session in seventh, just five thousandths of a second ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri.
The McLaren driver struggled with straight-line speed deficits throughout his laps and voiced frustration over the car’s engine performance, while also pointing to high thermal degradation as a primary factor for Sunday’s race strategy.
Norris felt his Qualifying effort was strong, but noted ongoing issues with top speed cost him valuable lap time.
“I need to see the laps, I don’t know. I need to see what the good things and bad things from each lap were. Obviously, there’s always a little bit in it as drivers, but I felt like my lap was very strong.
“It’s tough. I’m more happy because I’m still struggling a lot in the straights everywhere. I’m just down on every single straight.
“Every time I get a good exit, I’m just slower at the end of the straight. It just hurts seeing this every single time. I should be higher up.
“Not because I could have done a better job necessarily, but just because we’re not getting everything out of the car that we need to. That doesn’t make my life tough today, but it also makes it tough for tomorrow.”
Asked about the power unit issues causing his lower straight-line speeds and whether McLaren considered a swap, Norris confirmed:
“I’m pretty sure I still need it.”
Norris annoyed by the lack of pace
With McLaren finishing six tenths off Max Verstappen’s pole time, Norris expressed doubt about whether potential rain during the race would aid their performance.
“I’ve never driven in the rain in this car, so I don’t know if it’s good for us or worse for us. Normally it’s just the best cars that perform on a day like today are the best cars.
“We’re six tenths off. We’re clearly not close to being a good car today, so I don’t think we’ll be any better in the rain.”
Sepang’s surface and high temperatures created severe tyre wear during qualifying. Norris expects these conditions to open up contrasting strategic choices across the field for the race.
“It’s fine, it’s a smooth track. It’s high degradation.
“I think it should make for a good race for everyone tomorrow. I don’t know how the overtaking will be. Sometimes it can make that tougher.
“But it means more strategy, more people doing different things. A lot of people have different tyres as well. Some are 511, some are 421, some are 412.
“It’s a challenge and I think that’s kind of how it should be, honestly.”
On the difficulty of predicting tyre performance given the sliding and thermal limits, Norris admitted, “Yeah, it’s tough. It’s high degradation here because it’s thermally very, very limited.
“Yeah, and the harder it is, it lasts better, but it doesn’t provide as much grip. So, it’s hard to know if that’s better, but sometimes you slide more on the hard.
“Sometimes, therefore, the soft [tyre] provides more grip. You can drive slower but have more grip and go quicker. I think that’s why you see such a big variety.
“No one really knows and we’ll find out tomorrow.”
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