Lando Norris described his McLaren’s long-run pace at the Las Vegas Grand Prix as “shocking” – as he reckoned he could drive a road car quicker.
The Briton ended second practice on Thursday evening just 0.011 seconds behind pacesetter Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes, but he was far from happy with how things played out.
On a day when the cold temperatures and the low-grip track surface made things tricky for everyone, he said McLaren’s position in the timesheets was flattering considering how much trouble he thought they were in with front tyre graining.
“It’s just very difficult, super low grip,” he said. “I feel like I could drive a road car quicker than we drive at the minute…”
Norris said that being personally struggling to overcome issues with front graining, he was not too encouraged by the long-run potential of the McLaren on a weekend when he needs a good result to keep his slim championship hopes alive.
“I think the low-fuel stuff has been okay,” he explained. “The high-fuel, that was shocking. So, yeah, plenty of things to look into.
“This kind of combinations of things, and when we struggle with the front graining and stuff like that, I’m just not very good at it. So it’s always a bit of a struggle for me.
Lando Norris, McLaren F1 Team, in the garage
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
“But we’ve a good amount of time to work on it. So yeah, two halves really. Good low-fuel and difficult high-fuel.”
Team-mate Oscar Piastri felt that it was difficult to read too much into the Thursday practice times because track evolution was so rapid that it clouded the true performance of teams.
“Every lap we do, the track’s getting better and better,” said the Australian. “But we knew what to expect this time, at least.
“It’s been an interesting day. I think the pace seems reasonable, just a bit of tidying up. And if you don’t get the lap here, then you quickly lose a lot of time with the track evolving so much.”
And while Mercedes had looked to have an edge so far, Piastri felt McLaren was not out of contention.
“Mercedes have looked very quick today,” he added. “Very, very quick. Ferrari‘s been pretty strong as well. But I think we’re definitely in the mix.”
