Lando Norris admits McLaren driver is ‘struggling’ with ‘very difficult’ issue

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Lando Norris admits that the McLaren driver is ‘struggling’ with a ‘difficult’ issue this season, but is happy with how his qualifying for the Australian GP went on Saturday.

The 24-year-old only ranks eighth in the drivers’ championship from the first two races after scoring 12 points. Norris has the same tally as Fernando Alonso, but ranks behind the Aston Martin driver having finished no higher than P6. His teammate, Oscar Piastri, also ranks fifth.

Piastri has led McLaren through the Bahrain GP and the Saudi Arabian GP with 16 points and a personal-best finish of P4 in Jeddah. Norris enjoyed his best result so far this year in Sakhir before finishing eighth in Saudi Arabia, where Alonso finished fifth after taking P9 in Bahrain.

Lando Norris jumped Oscar Piastri to lead McLaren’s qualifying at the Australian GP

Sunday’s Australian GP will offer Norris his chance to lead McLaren’s efforts ahead of home favourite, Piastri, though. The Briton qualified fourth with a 1:16.315 lap in Q3 but will start from P3 on the grid. Sergio Perez qualified third but has a three-place penalty for impeding.

Perez’s penalty also moves Piastri up from P6 to P5, ahead of the Red Bull driver. Norris’ lap was only 0.041 seconds away from claiming third on merit alone. While Piastri lapped Albert Park in 1:16.572, despite leading Norris through the first two stages of Saturday’s qualifying.

Norris could not match Piastri’s pace in Q1 or Q2 as the McLaren drivers lapped the home of the Australian GP 0.061s and 0.149s apart. But the Briton’s confidence grew to hold a 0.257s margin over the Melbourne native in Q3. So, Norris ended qualifying pleased with his result.

Lando Norris admits he is still ‘struggling’ with controlling the MCL38

But while Norris was glad he claimed P4 in Q3, the Bristol-born ace admits he is still not fully comfortable with McLaren’s 2024 car. The 13-time Grand Prix podium finisher still finds their MCL38 tricky at its limit. Norris even claims it can go away from him when he is comfortable.

“Yeah, [I’m] happy with today, honestly,” Norris told the official Formula 1 website. “I’ve not [felt] like I’ve done that well this weekend. I struggled to put things together and just to get comfortable with the car, knowing how to push on it.

“Normally when I feel like I push, it goes the opposite way of what I want. It’s something I’m still struggling with, I would say, and I’ve struggled with a bit this season.

“As soon as I got a little bit more comfortable, like now and through qualifying especially, I felt like I could unlock more from what I wanted. I could, kind of, control the car better. As soon as I do that, I feel like I can get a lot more lap time out of it. But it’s just very difficult.”