McLaren stress they have 'a lot to optimise' after Friday in Mexico
F1 News
Lando Norris summarised McLaren's Friday practice performance as 'okay' and stressed that overnight, a 'little bit of work' is required to optimise the package. His teammate Oscar Piastri 'felt pretty good' but finished nearly one second behind George Russell's fastest time in FP1.
Norris missed the opening practice session because McLaren opted to give Pato O'Ward a drive in the car as part of the mandatory rookie sessions. The British driver also missed out on weekend-specific running in FP2, as most of the session was dedicated to a Pirelli tyre test. He managed to get some laps on the medium tyre at the end, but is looking to draw confidence from Piastri.
"An okay start to the weekend in Mexico. I think not doing FP1 was always going to leave me with the job of getting an understanding of the tyres in the extended FP2, but overall, we’re there or thereabouts. Oscar was quick today which gives us confidence as a team going into tomorrow’s session. I feel like I’ve got a little bit of work to do, but we’ll work hard on that overnight," Norris said.
Meanwhile, Piastri reports the team made improvements between FP1 and FP2. "Friday done. It felt pretty good, and I think we made some good changes in FP2, which made a positive impact on the feeling in the car, so I’m happy with it. It was interesting to get some running in with the tyres for next year, and there were good learnings all around. We seem to be reasonably competitive, and I think we’re in good shape going into tomorrow," Piastri said.
How are McLaren feeling about the Mexican Grand Prix weekend?
Team boss Andrea Stella confirmed the sessions went according to plan for the Woking-based team. "We tested all of the items we had planned, including the tyre test in FP2, aerodynamic components in FP1, and then Lando at the end had enough time to do a short Medium tyre run. It’s been a decent day, we seem to be there or thereabouts in terms of performance. At this track, however, there is always a lot to optimise which we will try to do overnight and tomorrow," he said.
Norris must maximise the weekend to keep his chance of a world championship push alive. The 24-year-old is 57 points behind Max Verstappen in the World Championship with five Grands Prix and two sprint races remaining.
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