Lando Norris has been cautious about the chances of McLaren moving forward in Formula 1’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix as its 2024 car is “super slow” on the straights.
Despite hopes that the Jeddah Corniche Circuit would suit its MCL38 more compared to Bahrain, McLaren occupied the same position in the order over a single lap.
Oscar Piastri repeated Norris’ result last week to front McLaren’s third-row lock-out, behind the Red Bulls, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso.
While Aston Martin regressed in race trim last week, Norris is concerned that McLaren’s deficit down the straights will thwart it from utilising its superior race pace.
Both McLaren cars were rooted towards the bottom of the speed-trap figures, with Zhou Guanyu, who didn’t set a qualifying time, the sole driver below Norris and Piastri.
When asked what he could do in the race to move forward from sixth place on the starting grid, Norris told Sky F1: “I have no idea. Jump the start… It’s hard to know.
“Last weekend they qualified ahead, the Astons, and we got them in the race. It’s a bit tricky here, I would say, to overtake in general. It’s difficult to follow, the tyre deg is less.
“So you need bigger deltas in order to overtake, and we’re super, super slow on the straight. I don’t know. It’s going to be a tough ask for us tomorrow.”
However, Norris is optimistic that McLaren’s decision to preserve a fresh set of the Medium compound for the race could prove advantageous over its nearest rivals.
“I think we’re in a good position today, it was a good day from what I felt,” he continued. I felt like I did a good lap at the end.
“I was a little bit compromised with only one set of new tyres for Q3. But we chose to do that, we knew that was something that could happen. To try and help us forward tomorrow with another new set of Mediums. But it was a good day I think.”
Mercedes endured a troubled outing as both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton rued recurring problems with bouncing resigning them to the fourth row of the grid.
“That’s the plan, yeah,” Norris responded when asked about remaining ahead of the Mercedes cars. “I think it’s tough, again, like I said, because we’re so slow on the straight.
“Yes, I believe so, but it’s an interesting track. It’s not as simple as just saying where you qualify is where you’re gonna finish, but it’s also difficult in certain scenarios to do a lot.
“It’ll be a plan. They are the guys we seem most close to between last weekend and this weekend. Obviously, Aston seemed a bit further ahead today, but tomorrow that could change.
“So we’re close. We’re not far away and anything can happen here. So we’ll keep pushing.”
