Norris reveals 'sacrifice' ahead of Australian GP

Ewan Gale
Friday 31 March 2023 16:00

Lando Norris has revealed he "sacrificed" practice for the Australian Grand Prix in order to gather valuable development data.

McLaren has undergone a restructuring in technical management between the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and F1's return to Albert Park, with James Key removed from his technical director role.

The team has instead divided the management of the technical side into various roles, with former Red Bull aerodynamic chief Peter Prodromou moving into a new technical director, aero position.

The changes came after McLaren failed to score in either of the first two races this year, with the MCL60 failing to show performance compared to its midfield rivals.

With eyes now switching to future gains, Norris was deployed as a test driver for Friday's practice.

"A pretty productive day," said Norris.

"I kind of sacrificed a lot of it to do some aero runs, that's why I didn't do a lot of running for the first half.

"More future work rather than for this weekend.

"FP2 was my first few runs on the hard tyre which is a reasonably tricky tyre but got comfortable quite quickly.

"So far, so good. From the little I did, a good reading, good understanding, I guess a decent feeling for tomorrow."

Piastri on 'special' homecoming

Oscar Piastri made his first appearance at his home grand prix, having grown up in Melbourne before moving to Europe to chase his F1 dream through the junior formulae.

Asked what it meant to take to the track, Piastri said: "Very, very special to be here at home.

"A nice track, the walls are a bit closer than they look on TV but it was a good day.

"FP1 went pretty well, FP2, my first time on the inter which was learning as well so it feels like we are in a pretty decent place."