The McLaren Formula 1 team had entered the recent Chinese Grand Prix weekend anticipating that it would be on the back foot compared to its closest competitors.
McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella had coined the term “damage limitation” back at Suzuka to dampen the expectations surrounding how competitive it would be.
Since the Italian’s appointment to the helm ahead of the previous campaign, McLaren has adopted an open approach to charting its ascendant path back to the front.
Once again, the Woking-based squad’s senior management had been honest enough to converse that its latest car, the MCL38, would harbour the same weaknesses.
The teams and drivers had not visited China since F1’s return to ground effect cars in 2022, meaning there was no historical precedence to support Stella’s statement.
But the Shanghai International Circuit’s combination of long radius corners, slow-speed turns and kilometre-long-plus back straight was set to be McLaren’s antithesis.
However, Norris capitalised on a sprinkling shower during the latter stages in Sprint Qualifying to storm to an unexpected pole position with a 1.2-second advantage.
Nevertheless, the Briton would commit an error in attempting to hold the outside line at Turn 1 against Lewis Hamilton and skated down the order to blow his chance.
Norris was candid in his assessment of the truncated race format, citing that his sixth-place finish in drier conditions was more representative of McLaren’s potential.
But Norris again surpassed such prior pessimistic evaluations in qualifying to secure fourth on the grid, with team-mate Oscar Piastri also edging out the Ferrari cars.
Despite the Maranello-based camp’s drivers being situated down the order in seventh and eighth, Norris reiterated that the race would provide a different proposition.
Norris, though, maintained his position at the start and then crafted a successful move on Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin to run a stable third in the nascent stages.
Even once Leclerc had recovered from a sluggish start to pass both George Russell’s Mercedes and Alonso, Norris was managing the gap to the Ferrari driver behind.
That enabled McLaren to avoid being stung with Ferrari pulling a clever strategic choice like in Japan, with Norris told to extend his stint to protect against that threat.
Norris must have been rueing his work to create a gap being eradicated when a Virtual Safety Car turned into the full version, but again he had the measure on Leclerc.
The timing of the interruption would prove fortuitous to McLaren as it enabled the team to pit Norris, who emerged out in second with Red Bull’s Sergio Perez in fourth.
With Perez tucked up behind Leclerc and the turbulence from the Ferrari degrading his rubber, the Mexican was powerless to threaten Norris once he climbed to third.
Therefore, Norris took the chequered flag in second place for the eighth time in his F1 career, branding the result like a “win” amid Max Verstappen’s sheer dominance.
Norris proclaimed that splitting the two Red Bulls and beating both Ferraris had come as a “pleasant surprise”, while Leclerc was also astonished with McLaren’s pace.
Leclerc was not alone in that camp. Norris credited McLaren’s remarkable turnaround to the car coming “alive” in the cooler temperatures present across the weekend.
“The conditions cooled down, the wind calmed down, and both of these things, I think, played into our hands a little bit more,” Norris assessed.
“That’s why yesterday, if you ask me, what do we expect for today, it definitely was nowhere near top three or even maybe top five.
“A pleasant surprise, and the car felt much better, but not quick enough to match the Red Bulls.”
Alongside the more conducive conditions for McLaren’s 2024 package, Norris even distinguished that the new asphalt could have enshrouded the MCL38’s blemishes.
Asked to pinpoint what changed to swing the impetus towards McLaren’s favour once the cars hit the race track, Norris answered: “Nothing. I don’t know. I don’t know.
“What did change? We were just quicker than we thought. The limitations, the places we expected to struggle, probably a lot more, we didn’t struggle as much in.
“These longer corners, like Turn 1, have always been a big weakness for us.
“Part of Turn 1 was probably better than we were expecting, and the second part was as we were expecting.
“We’re still learning about the car. It’s as simple as that.
“This track is very different. The tarmac is quite odd. Maybe that played into our hands a bit more than we were thinking.
“Maybe with the old tarmac, we would have struggled a bit more. Just little things.
Norris has adopted a similar tone to the one that Mercedes used during its pre-eminent period between 2014 and 2020: dampen presumptions to avoid undelivering.
However, Norris has denied that has been the case with McLaren and believes that its relative pace deficit to Ferrari in previous races validated its defeatist outlook.
“We’re not making it up. We’re giving our honest opinion on where we’re going to be,” he claimed.
“I think if we were to go into a weekend and we knew we were going to be strong, we’ve said it.
“More often than not, we don’t feel that optimistic because all year, we’ve been behind Red Bull.
“All year, we’ve been behind Ferrari. There’s no reason for us to suddenly think we should be ahead.”
“Nothing really pointed to us having an amazing race today, especially the Sprint race yesterday, which was our best version of events of what can go down.
“But things just went to plan and went very smoothly from Lap 1 onwards. I didn’t make a mistake in Turn 1 and go off.
“It was a good start. I got past the Aston [Martin] and I could just control the race. That was very different to yesterday.”
Meanwhile, Stella remained undeterred from his downbeat stance heading into the weekend, disclosing his own shock that it transpired to be McLaren’s best showing.
But Stella was wise to acknowledge that McLaren’s collective puzzlement at its starring performance has provided lessons that it must learn from for coming rounds.
“In fairness, we came here thinking this was a damage limitation event, but actually it’s been the most competitive event,” the ex-Ferrari race engineer, 53, confessed.
“Pole position for the Sprint… I think the Sprint would have been possibly a second-place finish without the issue of corner one.
“Yesterday competitive in qualifying and again a strong race. So clearly, we have to fine-tune something in our understanding.
“But Formula 1 often surprises you because it’s sensitive to so many parameters. But anyhow, good result, good surprise.”
McLaren’s competitive outing on a track that it expected to expose the shortcomings of its car bodes well as it plans to introduce upgrades at the next round in Miami.
Like Shanghai, the Miami International Autodrome – which warps around the Hard Rock Stadium – comprises a lasting straight and an excess of slow-speed sections.
But on the most recent evidence, McLaren should head Stateside for the first time this season not fearing that it can’t compete for a place on the rostrum with Red Bull.
