{"id":23292,"date":"2024-08-24T11:00:28","date_gmt":"2024-08-24T15:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=23292"},"modified":"2024-08-24T11:00:28","modified_gmt":"2024-08-24T15:00:28","slug":"norris-confirms-mclaren-upgrade-success-with-zandvoort-pole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/24\/norris-confirms-mclaren-upgrade-success-with-zandvoort-pole\/","title":{"rendered":"Norris confirms McLaren upgrade success with Zandvoort Pole"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>McLaren cement themselves as fastest team with Norris Pole Position<\/h2>\n<p>Lando Norris takes a dominant Pole Position in Zandvoort, over three-tenths ahead of Max Verstappen. Norris validates the first indications of <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/23\/f1-news-mclaren-bring-the-most-upgrades-to-dutch-gp\/\" target=\"_self\">McLaren&#8217;s upgrades<\/a> on Friday, with the MCL38 taking a clear step forward. McLaren are now objectively the fastest team as they enter the next phase of their development.<\/p>\n<p>After Friday Practice, Mercedes were regarded as the closest challengers to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/02\/mclaren-reveal-bold-upgrade-plan-to-topple-red-bull\/\" target=\"_self\">McLaren<\/a> this weekend. The W15 showed some promising pace on the first day of running, especially in the long runs.<\/p>\n<p>However, similarly to the first races of the year, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/14\/f1-news-mercedes-have-key-upgrades-in-the-pipeline\/\" target=\"_self\">Mercedes<\/a> took a step backwards in qualifying.<\/p>\n<p>After making set-up changes overnight, the Silver Arrows failed to keep their early performance &#8211; especially as track conditions changed.<\/p>\n<p>This left McLaren as the clear fastest team in qualifying, which Lando Norris capitalised on. Oscar Piastri made a series of mistakes in his final Q3 run, costing the papaya team from locking out the front row.<\/p>\n<p>In this sense, Norris might be slightly frustrated to see Max Verstappen alongside him for tomorrow&#8217;s race. The Dutchman executed a very strong lap to put himself at the front.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"lc-BWOIzS5R142m25-6tXw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2167333487\" 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:'lc-BWOIzS5R142m25-6tXw',sig:'ATIaht0CM8_RznKEUOUxpRSFcACV_ntIRt_K_TYZsJ8=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2167333487',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>The extent of McLaren&#8217;s advantage<\/h3>\n<p>Despite this, it is clear that <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/24\/christian-horner-shuts-down-lawson-f1-guarantee\/\" target=\"_self\">Red Bull<\/a> lacks the performance to compete with McLaren on pure pace. A three-tenth deficit at such a short circuit is very significant, particularly as Zak Brown&#8217;s team adjusts to a very new package.<\/p>\n<p>These were the average lap times from Friday&#8217;s Race Pace Simulations on medium tyres:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Norris &#8211; 1:15.567<\/li>\n<li>Piastri &#8211; 1:15.826<\/li>\n<li>Hamilton &#8211; 1:16.040<\/li>\n<li>Verstappen &#8211; 1:16.122<\/li>\n<li>Leclerc &#8211; 1:16.367<\/li>\n<li>Perez &#8211; 1:16.414<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>When McLaren last introduced a major set of updates in Miami, they unlocked approximately 3-4 tenths in performance.<\/p>\n<p>A similar step forward is expected from this weekend&#8217;s new components. The Woking-based team understands that an improvement of just a few tenths (as seen today) could give them a significant cushion.<\/p>\n<p>With Red Bull and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/24\/ferrari-struggle-in-zandvoort-practice-as-concerns-grow\/\" target=\"_self\">Ferrari&#8217;s development stagnating<\/a>, there is a unique window of opportunity for McLaren.<\/p>\n<p>Then again, the last few months have proven that converting victory with the fastest car is never a guarantee. Andrea Stella&#8217;s personnel must still ensure they avoid any strategic or operational errors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>McLaren cement themselves as fastest team with Norris Pole Position Lando Norris takes a dominant Pole Position in Zandvoort, over three-tenths ahead of Max Verstappen. Norris validates the first indications of McLaren&#8217;s upgrades on Friday, with the MCL38 taking a clear step forward. McLaren are now objectively the fastest team as they enter the next [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":23293,"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":[2220,68,465,444,66],"class_list":["post-23292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-2024-formula-1-season","tag-f1","tag-f1-news","tag-lando-norris","tag-mclaren"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23292","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=23292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}