Lando Norris calculates straight-line deficit as McLaren chases Mercedes power answers
Lando Norris said McLaren has made progress in understanding Mercedes' PU, but still has a straight-line deficit.
Lando Norris said that, while McLaren has progressed in understanding the Mercedes power unit, his team was still losing time to the works outfit on straights without knowing the core reason.
Team principal Andrea Stella said in Australia that he sees “a lot of lap time available” by improving its deployment with Mercedes power, with the championship leaders holding a fuller understanding of its own engine than its customers.
Lando Norris says McLaren still losing time to Mercedes on Shanghai straight
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Norris, along with teammate Oscar Piastri, locked out the third row in qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix, with Mercedes having locked out the front row as Kimi Antonelli earned his first career Grand Prix pole position.
Despite consistently lapping within a couple of tenths of the Mercedes duo through the first two sectors, both McLarens seemed to lose out most of their time in the final sector in China.
Power unit rules state that suppliers must supply their customers with up-to-date specifications, but having developed its PU from the beginning, the Mercedes factory team is likely to hold an early advantage while McLaren, Williams and Alpine learn how to extract its maximum potential.
The reigning World Champion pointed out that, during Shanghai’s 1.2km back straight, there was time Mercedes still gained on the MCL40 – and his team is yet to understand why.
“There are some things we’ve certainly done better,” Norris said after qualifying in China.
“It’s also a much more simple track, so it eliminates half the problem straight away, but we’re still losing [in] the final few runs a good tenth-and-a-half just down the back straight, and we don’t know why.
“So, there are some things we still need to try and understand and figure out.
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“We’ve certainly taken a step forward, and the team are doing everything they can to improve. But for a little while, it will be very difficult to be ahead of a Mercedes in this kind of situation, but we’re all working hard to try and at least be level par with them.”
Instead of looking at the very front of the field, both Norris and Piastri believe McLaren is in more of a battle with Ferrari over the best-of-the-rest tag at this stage of the season.
Lewis Hamilton has repeatedly praised his car’s driveability through the corners, though acknowledged the Ferrari engine appears “down on power” compared to its Mercedes counterpart.
Norris agreed that Mercedes power appears to supercede Ferrari’s PU, but its cornering ability makes life much harder for McLaren to keep up.
“I mean, they were certainly quicker this morning, they were quicker now,” Norris said of Ferrari.
“We have a better power unit than the Ferrari, and that’s our advantage today, is that we just have more straight-line speed. But there’s still a car that drives around the corners quicker than even a Mercedes.
“So between Mercedes and them, they have different places they’re strong. We’ll see. I mean, they have better tyre management. They have more grip, and therefore it’s much easier to look after the tyres that way.
“We have to push like hell in the corners to keep up, and then we can obviously catch up in the straight. That’s kind of the wrong end of the stick you want to be on in a race situation at times, but never say never.
“If we can improve on some of these from this morning, then we’re certainly not out of picture of racing them, but it’s still going to be very difficult.”
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