Lando Norris, a British driver for the McLaren Formula 1 team, expressed his concerns about their performance at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. During practice, Norris struggled with the balance of his car, particularly in certain corners of the track. He acknowledged that in order to be competitive, he needs to find a better setup for his MCL38. Despite these challenges, Norris believes that McLaren has a solid foundation to work from and is optimistic about their chances of improvement. He also noted that the performance of different teams can vary depending on the track and conditions. Norris is uncertain about McLaren’s position in the pecking order but hopes to make progress in the upcoming qualifying session.
Oscar Piastri positioned himself two spots higher than his teammate on the timesheets; however, he agreed with Norris’ opinion that McLaren had significant time to unlock.
“Yeah, it was a challenging day, to be honest,” Piastri evaluated. “We’ve had moments where we looked good and moments where we didn’t, so it’s a bit difficult to gauge where we stand. But we definitely have some improvements to make tomorrow, so we’ll see what we can do.
“The competition in the middle is pretty tight and mixed. So yeah, we’ll see how we perform.”
Piastri acknowledged that Aston Martin appears to be fast based on Fernando Alonso’s leading time in FP2, but he emphasized that the entire grid is closely matched in terms of single-lap pace.
“It’s hard to say. Honestly, we could be at the front of the pack. We could also be in tenth place where we currently are. It’s just very difficult to determine,” the Australian added.
“Therefore, we can expect another close battle in tomorrow’s qualifying session. Hopefully, we can secure a higher position on the grid than we currently hold.”