“Reality-Check” for McLaren: No chance of victory in Monaco?

– For Lando Norris, Monaco qualifying was a kind of “reality check,” to use his words. Although team principal Andrea Stella had predicted that McLaren would perform strongly in slow corners, seventh place for Oscar Piastri and eighth place for Norris on Saturday do not necessarily support the 55-year-old’s thesis.

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“I think there’s a slight disagreement there,” said Norris after qualifying when confronted with this statement. “Obviously, I’m the one in the car, so I can also assess how difficult it is to extract a certain lap time, and how difficult that was at the last [race] in Montreal.”

“That’s why I was so surprised last weekend by how competitive we were,” explains the reigning world champion. “Coming here hasn’t necessarily opened our eyes, but it’s still a bit of a reality check of how far off we actually are.”

Norris continues: “I didn’t have much hope before the weekend. The car is simply very difficult to drive, doesn’t really obey, and doesn’t forgive any mistakes. Last year my confidence was at 100, now it’s at 85. And in Monaco, you need that 100.”

In Montreal, McLaren had tried out a new front wing, but they would pack it away again a short time later. While Norris is driving with the new spec in Monaco, Piastri switched back to the old variant before qualifying. Nevertheless, there is only a tenth of a second between the two.

Once again, it appears that McLaren has built a theoretically fast car that causes significant problems for the drivers in practice. Already last year, Norris struggled with the handling of his car at times.

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In any case, the world champion sees the current performance of the MCL40 as inferior to that of the competition: “You try to push your car to the limit in all aspects,” explains Norris. “Our limits are simply a little below those of others. It’s that simple, and yet it’s not that simple.”

“We have problems with some characteristics. The front wheels lock up and the front axle doesn’t work particularly well. But that’s a problem with the car, not the tires, or a combination of both, and that’s something we need to work on.”

In qualifying, Piastri was over five tenths off Kimi Antonelli’s best time. Although Norris emphasizes after the session that there might have been another one or two tenths in his lap, the fact remains that the MCL40 is currently not fast enough to start the race from the front row.

The team’s problems already became apparent on Friday. While Piastri lacked any pace, Norris had to stop his car shortly after the start of FP2.

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