Lando Norris says the difficult nature of the Mugello Circuit is “better” for Formula 1, despite the mistake that ended his FP2 session early.
With little run-off areas present at Mugello, mistakes around the lap are costly, which Norris discovered after running wide on the exit of Poggio Secco.
The McLaren driver spun after touching the gravel and struck the barriers, eliminating himself from the rest of the session.
Although he was the only driver to meet the barriers on Friday, Norris says the unforgiving characteristics of the track belong in F1.
”As much as I hate that there was gravel because of ending up crashing and damaging the car, it’s better like this,” Norris said.
“It’s more tricky, more challenging and that’s what it should be like. Not ideal, but it’s what happens sometimes.”
Norris states the accident felt worse from inside the cockpit than what it looked like from the outside, and rued missing out on high-fuel running in preparation for the race.
“It felt a lot worse when I was in the car than what it looks like,” he said.
“I think there’s damage to the steering and maybe the rear but nothing major. I don’t think I damaged too much the floor or the wings apart from the front wing.
“It’s not terrible, it could have been worse. I’m lucky, but it was a small mistake from my side which was quite costly,
“It cost me all of the high-fuel running in FP2, but yeah. It is what it is and we need to try and make up for it tomorrow.”
Norris, who ended up 14th fastest behind team-mate Carlos Sainz, admits McLaren was expecting to be more competitive during the opening day of running.
“We were expecting to start the weekend a bit stronger,” he said. “I don’t think we’re bad or slow, it’s just the car has been quite tricky.
“We’re maybe not as competitive as were expecting compared to some other teams, so we have a bit of work to do.”
