Norris sets McLaren car targets for 2020 F1 season

Lando Norris has outlined increased downforce and car efficiency as the key areas for McLaren to improve on heading into the 2020 Formula 1 season. 

McLaren enjoyed its best campaign of the V6 hybrid era as it continued its recovery bid up the pecking order by securing fourth spot in the constructors’ championship, beating engine suppliers Renault to claim midfield honours in 2019. 

Norris, who enjoyed a stellar rookie F1 season, insisted that despite its impressive progress, McLaren still has improvements to make in order challenge the likes of Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull in the coming years. 

“There’s been a lot of very good things but there’s still a lot of things which have not been so good and things we need to improve on,” Norris explained. 

"I think we can be happy but there’s still a long way to go to be able to race with Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes.”

Asked which areas McLaren still needs to improve in, Norris replied: “Downforce, it’s as simple as that. 

“Downforce is the biggest thing and is the thing that has improved so much from last year. 

“It’s not just having more downforce but efficiency and the characteristics of the car, the car still needs to work in different conditions, different winds, different corner types and different speeds. 

“There’s still things from our side, like pit stops and things with driving that we need to improve and our efficiency with how we work as a team but also with the car. 

“The car has suited some tracks a lot and some tracks not at all, and it’s trying to make the car suit ideally both, but maybe not suit so much one track but maybe be more competitive in the tracks we suffered in a lot more. 

“So characteristics of how the car works and so on is the biggest place to improve.”