McLaren require "perfect fix" - Lando Norris

McLaren

McLaren require "perfect fix" - Norris

Team looking for resolve issue that blighted testing

Ian Parkes & Topher Smith

Saturday 12 March 2022 20:30

Lando Norris is hopeful McLaren can find the "perfect fix" to finally cure the troubles that have blighted it during pre-season testing in Bahrain.

Norris was forced to conduct all of McLaren's running at the Sakhir circuit across the three days after Daniel Ricciardo fell ill before testing positive for Covid-19, with the Briton clocking 90 laps on the final day while setting the ninth fastest time.

Throughout the test, however, McLaren encountered numerous problems, notably with its brakes whilst there was also a lack of pace on occasion in contrast to its fine running in the first test at Barcelona last month.

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"I think we're on top of it," said Norris. "We know what the problems are, we know what we're suffering with. Coming up with a perfect fix, it's the question of do we have that or not?

"That's what we're unsure about until we get to next week [for the Bahrain GP] and we put it all together.

"The team back at MTC are working hard, and of course, a lot of the guys and girls here, to understand the problems and why they happened in the first place and why we encountered them.

"It's not a simple thing. It's quite a complicated area that takes a lot of work, a lot of time to come up with these parts. It's the challenge to get them all here in good condition for next week."

Norris highlights 'sprint vibe' ahead of first race

Norris believes the team could benefit from more testing but acknowledged that every team will sooner or later find issues with its cars.

"We need all the testing we can get, we need the time to prepare for next week," said Norris. "Without these tests, we’d be in a much worse position going into the race next week.

"For us, it’s very beneficial at the minute, but everyone has problems now and then. A lot of people have had them in previous years and so far this year we have run into troubles.

"I don’t mind the challenge of going straight in and not having the time to prepare, I think that’s what people love about the short race weekends with the sprint race.

"Everyone straight into quali, it’s that kind of vibe."