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Norris will start third in the Austrian GP as upgrades pay off for McLaren
The 2023 Formula 1 season has been an uphill struggle for McLaren, but if qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix is any indication, that struggle might pay off in a busy July.
Lando Norris qualified fourth for the Austrian GP, and may have just missed out on the front row near the end of his qualifying run in Q3. While teammate Oscar Piastri missed out on Q3 after one of his lap times was deleted, hs looked strong enough to advance to Q3 on merit.
Both are good signs for a team that has endured an up-and-down beginning to the 2023 campaign.
“I’m super happy with P4. It was one of the best qualifying sessions of the season,” said Norris after qualifying. “The car was feeling good today, I had a lot of confidence and was chipping away through qualifying so I’m happy.”
McLaren has been bringing various upgrades to the track in recent weeks, and this week the team brought another set of upgrades for Norris’s MCL60, and not Piastri’s.
Those upgrades seem to be working.
“The team did an awesome job on getting the upgrades ready for this race and they did a great job today to get us there,” added Norris. “I think I could’ve had a little bit more as I made a small mistake in the last corner, which likely cost me P3, so I am a little bit frustrated, but at the same time, I’m taking a P4 every day.”
While Piastri, along with Team Principal Andrea Stella, were frustrated with the deleted lap time they both noted the improved pace.
“So, P13 in qualifying. It’s a bit of a shame as I would have been in Q3 without the lap deletion. The pace was very encouraging for both myself and Lando. The new upgrade is looking good, so a huge thank you to the team for all of their work,” said Piastri. “We’ll try again tomorrow to get into the top 10 and then, of course, for Sunday, we’ll try to make our way into the points if we can.”
“Today feels a little bittersweet. From a car performance point of view, we should have had two cars in Q3 but unfortunately, Oscar had a lap-time deleted. This was a situation that many endured today, and we know it is a factor in Austria,” said Stella.
Still, the team boss was encouraged with what he saw from Norris, and his upgraded MCL60
“On the other side of the garage, Lando’s performance with the upgraded car was encouraging, as he was consistently near the top of each session, but we will learn more over the weekend, especially in terms of race pace,” said Stella. “I would like to thank the team at the factory and trackside for the efforts that led to delivering the upgrades and for the hard work ongoing at McLaren, as we attempt to gain competitiveness.”
As for why the team is bringing upgrades to just one car this weekend, Stella addressed that earlier this week. Speaking on the F1 Nation podcast, the McLaren Team Principal noted that it was a matter of time constraints that led the team to upgrade Norris’s MCL60, before upgrading Piastri’s.
Stella also outlined on the F1 Nation podcast that the team was performing a “substantial redesign” of the MCL60 as part of this process.
“We realised that the car needed a substantial redesign, so we started this big effort of redesigning the aerodynamics, and some mechanical parts, and we are finally ready for these upgrades to land on the car trackside,” said Stella.
“This started in Austria and will continue for a few races as parts become available. The aerodynamic performance is the main area we targeted, which will be reflected in more downforce and possibly less drag. This normally [translates into] genuine and immediate lap time,” continued the McLaren boss. “We will have to wait to see if this is the case and if it brings us a few tenths of lap time.”
Those upgrades have contributed to increased morale around the team.
“The mood at McLaren is definitely high,” said Andrea on the F1 Nation podcast. “I would say that it is not just the mood, what is also high at the moment at McLaren is the level of energy and the level of awareness of the potential that we are building in the team.”
Add in Friday’s results and that mood is only higher.
