Author: Barkha Roy
Lando Norris attributed McLaren’s disappointing performance at the Miami Grand Prix to several factors, such as the track conditions, the layout and the surface. He expressed his disappointment at the team’s poor performance and commented that“perhaps the AlphaTauris was the only other slow car“.
The team arrived in Miami after securing two impressive results in the previous races in Baku and Australia. The Briton won points in both races, while the Australian scored points in his homeland. However, things didn’t go according to plan for the team in Miami, as both Norris and Piastri failed to make it past Q1 during qualifying. They were a second slower than leader Max Verstappen and, unfortunately, their performance didn’t improve during the grand prix.
During the first lap of the race, Norris suffered damage to the floorboard of his car when Nyck de Vries crashed into his MCL60. As a result, Norris would have lost 0.2 seconds per lap due to the damage. On the other hand, Piastri’s pace was hampered by a brake-by-wire problem, which affected his performance throughout the race.
Despite its poor performance at the Miami Grand Prix, McLaren managed to hold on to fifth place in the Constructors’ Championship. However, Alpine’s impressive double points haul in the same race means that they are now level with McLaren on 14 points. Meanwhile, Lando Norris has only scored points in two of the five races so far this season.
Lando Norris offered an explanation for McLaren’s poor performance at the Miami Grand Prix, saying that the track wasn’t suitable for the car. He also said that the longer corners, the high temperatures and the track surface were among the factors that led to his disastrous showing last weekend. He also noted that there were no slow cars during the race, except possibly the AlphaTauris. He also noted that Alfa Romeo, Haas and Alpines were significantly faster than McLaren.
According to Autosport, McLaren team boss Andrea Stella described his performance at the Miami Grand Prix as a “reality check”. Stella acknowledged that the information gained from the race helped them to recognize that certain development directions still needed to be pursued, specifically in relation to performance off the brakes and throttle. He said that the car’s current configuration doesn’t work well in these conditions, which limits its performance on tracks like Miami.