McLaren has argued there was no common trend behind Lando Norris‘ poor starts in Formula 1 as he banished his wretched first-lap run at the Singapore Grand Prix.
Norris managed to retain his pole position advantage at the eighth time of asking at the past race as he dominated proceedings to post a 20-second winning margin.
The Briton had been unable to maintain the lead the seven previous times he had qualified fastest, stretching back to his maiden pole at the 2021 Russian Grand Prix.
This season, Norris squandered win opportunities in the Spanish and Hungarian Grands Prix with stuttering starts, while he also slipped back in the China Sprint race.
Max Verstappen getting past in Zandvoort was inconsequential due to McLaren’s pace advantage, but team-mate Oscar Piastri‘s Turn 4 move at Monza hindered him.
But while Norris has put a stop to that negative record, McLaren boss Andrea Stella has revealed that a review found that there was no evident problem with its starts.
“I don’t disagree that at face value starts and overall approach to the first corner of the first lap might have looked like an opportunity for Lando,” Stella explained.
“But, having done a little bit of analysis as a group including Lando, we have gone through the season every single start and every single first lap.
“In fairness, we haven’t found that even in cases in which Lando started in pole position and he was not P1 at the end of first lap, he had kind of given up very much in terms of performance.
“We reviewed Barcelona, and we thought that Russell would have been P1 even with Lando trying something different.
“There were some opportunities in terms of execution of the start, but we recognise that that was also on the team side.
“For instance, I think it was Zandvoort, the one in which both cars had cold tyres because of an issue from a team point of view, and both cars didn’t have a great start.
“So, I think while at first value, it looked like Lando had a significant opportunity there. Actually, the facts weren’t so clear.”
Norris learning with experience at the front
Stella believes that Norris gaining more experience in such situations at the sharp end has helped him to learn about where best to position his car to thwart attacks.
“Definitely we have been focusing on the execution of the start and preparation of the tyres, Lando himself, even the time we focus on start preparation during a weekend is now more concentrated,” he added.
“You gain confidence. And you gain familiarity with starting from pole position, and understanding, even in terms of territorial defence, what you need to do, even to dissuade people for going [for the lead].
“So, I think this is part of the journey, and it’s just good that we are now having to face this kind of opportunity.”
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