“Good confidence” in McLaren after no ‘big problems’ - Norris

Lando Norris says there is “good confidence” in McLaren after getting through the opening two days of Formula 1 pre-season testing without encountering any “big problems”. 

The 19-year-old rookie turned in an impressive day for McLaren as he logged 104 laps on his way to finishing just three tenths off the pace of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc on Tuesday, adding to the mileage Carlos Sainz racked up on the opening day. 

Barring a brief stoppage for Sainz on Monday due to a loss of power, McLaren has run largely issue-free in a stark contrast to winter tests of previous years. 

“I managed to do some longer runs, something I haven’t managed to do so much of in any other tests so far,” Norris said at the end of his first day behind the wheel of the MCL34. 

“So for myself it’s good to know that we can get through pretty much a whole day with no big problems. 

“But it’s only day two. I’m sure we’re going to run into a couple of problems at some point, but it’s just making sure I guess that we can get through this whole test. 

“We know what the problems might be on the car that could come up,” he added. 

“So it’s just making sure we figure them out before Australia, and none of them pop up, knowing that we could have fixed it at some point over these couple of weeks. 

“It’s good confidence from myself and from the team knowing that there’s not a lot to keep chasing up on and keep checking after every run. 

“I think for the team side as well, and it’s good for them knowing they’re going to be confident getting through every run plan possible through every day.” 

Norris drove McLaren’s 2018 challenger during seven practice sessions last year and is confident the team has made a step forward with its MCL34, though he stressed it is “not a perfect car”. 

“Some things we’ve improved on from a car perspective,” Norris explained.

“But there’s a lot to work on - a lot of stuff that we’ve learned over the last couple of days that we need to fairly quickly develop and improve on for the rest of the test and going into the first race. 

“It’s hard to say if all the problems are gone. There are still some things that we struggle with. It’s not a perfect car, for sure. But I think so far, so good, and between Carlos [Sainz] and myself, we’re reasonably happy with how everything felt so far.

“These next few days, the car is probably never going to look perfect. We’re trying to explore every area we can to make sure by the end of this test, we know the correct direction to work and develop the car in. 

“So throughout the season, we know where to push the car or what areas we really have to develop to become better or make the car faster.”