{"id":19457,"date":"2024-03-19T04:39:23","date_gmt":"2024-03-19T08:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=19457"},"modified":"2024-03-19T05:04:14","modified_gmt":"2024-03-19T09:04:14","slug":"lando-norris-not-fully-comfortable-with-2024-mclaren","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/03\/19\/lando-norris-not-fully-comfortable-with-2024-mclaren\/","title":{"rendered":"Lando Norris not fully comfortable with 2024 McLaren"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Lando Norris is still working to find a better balance in his MCL38.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>With two rounds of the 2024 F1 season complete, Lando Norris sits in 9th place in the standings. After an encouraging first race in Bahrain, a failed Safety Car gamble forced the British driver to settle for a somewhat uninspiring result.<\/p>\n<p>Still, Oscar Piastri showed what the MCL38 was capable of by securing P4. The Woking-based outfit is now a firm frontrunner in Formula 1, albeit <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/03\/03\/f1-news-red-bull-upgrades-scheduled-for-upcoming-rounds\/\" target=\"_self\">a few steps behind Red Bull<\/a> and Ferrari.<\/p>\n<p>Like twelve months ago, team principal Andrea Stella is targeting an aggressive development programme to advance his team.<\/p>\n<p>However, pure performance is not the only objective within the McLaren garage.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"EHFmtGWjSA1C5Gg-Hnqppg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2075115456\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'EHFmtGWjSA1C5Gg-Hnqppg',sig:'g3vIbbOA5dqgSu8wy6YzWqMJB1MddsTohINpNsnBO94=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2075115456',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>So far this year, Lando Norris is not fully satisfied with the driving characteristics of his 2024 challenger.<\/p>\n<p>This year&#8217;s car is a clear step forward in terms of raw lap time, but this does not necessarily translate to driver comfort.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on this issue, Norris outlined that he is yet to gel with the MCL38:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>&#8220;I think we\u2019ve made some good steps in many areas, and I think just pure development steps like every team would be making,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportweek.com\/2024\/03\/16\/norris-still-having-to-adapt-his-driving-to-mclarens-2024-f1-car\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">motorsportweek<\/a> quotes him as saying.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;But in terms of us as McLaren and the characteristics we\u2019ve had as a McLaren car, definitely not as much as what I wanted and was hoping for over the winter.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;But that\u2019s completely known between everyone, and there\u2019s really good progress going on.&#8221;<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a id=\"HvA7O15sSYlU2qXdMKnggg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2076458952\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'HvA7O15sSYlU2qXdMKnggg',sig:'lXvNqjg8rod7R03qrWhPvPyqXWEqRyftCa1hKcTbZ5Y=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2076458952',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Norris works to find incremental gains<\/h3>\n<p>These comments are not particularly new for Norris, who has stated in previous seasons that McLaren&#8217;s F1 cars are not compatible with his driving style.<\/p>\n<p>Like all drivers, of course, maximising your package regardless of personal preferences is necessary.<\/p>\n<p>It cannot be said Norris has failed in this aspect, having established himself as the benchmark for the team.<\/p>\n<p>Still, observing the gap between the British driver and his up-and-coming teammate will be fascinating.<\/p>\n<p>Oscar Piastri is already showing tremendous maturity and consistency, in many ways speed-running the learning curve that can take F1 rookies years to master.<\/p>\n<p>The 22-year-old has started his 2024 campaign in a similar fashion to how he concluded last season- with performance and consistency.<\/p>\n<p>McLaren is one of the only teams with both drivers under contract for next season. In many ways, Piastri&#8217;s rapid progress has solved the team&#8217;s driver headache from eighteen months ago.<\/p>\n<p>With this context, Andrea Stella&#8217;s squad has the privilege of two drivers who can push each other to the limit.<\/p>\n<p>This will surely hasten Norris&#8217; efforts to fine-tune the MCL38.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/03\/18\/fred-vasseur-confident-ferrari-has-removed-key-weakness-in-2024\/\" target=\"_self\">Ferrari,<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/03\/06\/george-russell-responds-to-verstappen-mercedes-rumours\/\" target=\"_self\">Mercedes<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/03\/04\/fernando-alonso-camp-probes-red-bull-interest\/\" target=\"_self\">Aston Martin<\/a> are starting 2024 with very new packages compared to last season.<\/p>\n<p>The situation is different for McLaren, whose existing car is an evolution from 2023.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, searching for marginal gains (until the team&#8217;s first major upgrades) will be standard at Woking for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lando Norris is still working to find a better balance in his MCL38. With two rounds of the 2024 F1 season complete, Lando Norris sits in 9th place in the standings. After an encouraging first race in Bahrain, a failed Safety Car gamble forced the British driver to settle for a somewhat uninspiring result. Still, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":19459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2220,68,23,444,2251],"class_list":["post-19457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-2024-formula-1-season","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-lando-norris","tag-mcl38"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}