Speaking ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix Lando Norris outlined how he had adapted as a driver, and to the MCL39
Lando Norris enjoyed a tremendous start to the 2025 Formula 1 season at the Australian Grand Prix. He captured pole position, banked the fastest lap of the race, and came home with the victory.
But in the driver’s own words, the MCL39 is still “extremely difficult to drive.”
Norris’ description, which came at the FIA Press Conference ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix, may sound surprising given the results in Melbourne. But they speak to the sensitive nature of modern F1 cars, and how teams have to balance delivering the fastest car possible, with each driver’s own nature in the cockpit.
“I think as a driver, you’re always at the limit of your car and what your car can do, so you’re always trying to look at places to improve I guess I’m trying to look at things I can do better,” began Norris when asked about his Australian Grand Prix. “My start was good—it wasn’t perfect, no—but it was clear where I lost some of my performance in the launch.
“And then, just from a car point of view, the car is performing well, but it’s still extremely difficult to drive,” continued Norris. “We know in certain conditions, like in the wettest conditions, Max [Verstappen] was just as quick as us. In dry conditions, we were a bit better.”
Norris went on to say that a goal for McLaren would be making the car more “predictable,” but that given where they started the season, it is hard to complain.
“So just making the car a little bit more predictable and a little bit more comfortable. But it’s at a good point—I can’t complain about the whole thing,” added Norris. “It’s at a good level, but between Oscar [Piastri] and myself, there are things that we both comment on, which gives the guys and girls back in the factory a clear direction on what we want to improve. The car’s great, but we always want more.”
Asked later in the press conference to elaborate on the difficult nature of the MCL39, Norris outlined how while the car does not fit his driving “style,” he’s grown to accept that the “perfect” car might not exist.
What matters is “whatever makes the car quicker,” in his mind.
“It still doesn’t suit my driving style at all,” started Norris. “I think I’ve almost gotten to a point where I’ve just accepted that you can’t have a perfect car that suits your style. Maybe it suits some people, but I’ve kind of stopped asking for exactly what I want and more just focused on whatever makes the car quicker.
To hear Norris tell it, his job at McLaren is to drive the car they give him, and to drive it better than anyone else can on the grid.
“It’s probably a tricky car to drive and to put together a lap, but clearly, it’s taken a step forward from last year,” continued Norris. “At the end of the day, my job is to drive whatever car I get given. That’s why I’m here. That’s why McLaren wanted me. They believe I can drive it better than others can. Half and half.”
The McLaren driver — and current Drivers’ Championship leader — then went into detail about what he wants from a car, and how the MCL39 does not suit those characteristics.
“It’s similar characteristics and some of those characteristics I don’t like and don’t suit the way I want to drive, in an attacking way,” described Norris. “It doesn’t suit me in terms of me wanting to push the entries and push the braking. It’s very weak, I would say, from that point of view. Not what I like but at the same time some of it is down to the adaptation, needing to change my driving style every year, because the car I drive is very different to what McLaren was a few years ago, clearly, because then we were at the back and now we’re at the front. But some things carry on.”
Norris then highlighted how some drivers who have left the team and driven elsewhere have, looking back, outlined how the McLarens are “hard or odd” to drive. But since Norris’ entire F1 career has been with the Woking-based operation, driving a McLaren is all he knows, and he’s been able to adapt.
“Some things are like ‘ this is a McLaren’ for those reasons and I’ve only ever driven McLarens, so that’s all I know. I think it’s unique in certain aspects. Obviously we have our strengths and weakness and whenever someone has been at McLaren and gone to another team they have often said how hard or odd the McLaren has been to drive, whether that’s Daniel [Ricciardo] or with Carlos [Sainz],” added Norris. “It’s also like all I’ve got used to, so I’ve got to the point where I’ll just drive whatever car I have to drive as long as it’s fighting for a win and quick enough to fit for a win, I’m happy enough to drive what I’m given.”
Norris went on to take listeners through all the things that the engineers need to balance when trying to find lap time. Sure the team can find better aerodynamic peaks, but those often come at the expense of other situations the team might encounter on the track.
“I think the thing is, the aero guys and girls back in the factory they just try to find lap time. You’ve got to balance how you work the car. Like certain other teams have said, at times you can try to find a more peaky aero balance. If it works at the peak, it’s better, but it might be trickier to drive and worse in windy conditions. Or do you try to get rid of some of that peak grip and make it a slightly more all-rounded car? You have to play with this balance, because it’s difficult to get both. You have to choose what direction you want to go in,” described Norris.
In terms of what Norris would love to see from an F1 car, he admitted that might just be “very hard” to achieve.
“And definitely, I think some of what I want from a car is first of all just very hard to get. That’s probably the best answer. For me, a good front at apex, that’s kind of all I feel like I want,” described Norris. “But I very rarely have what I need from that perspective.
“But the car can still win races. It’s not like if I don’t have what I want, the car is bad. I can still get the most out of the car, if I don’t have what I want. There are just compromises. It’s so complicated when the guys and the girls try to take you through… If I do want more front end at mid-corner, at the minute we can only get that if we compromise low-speed or high-speed performance, or making the car more sensitive to windy conditions,” continued the McLaren driver.
“There are so many compromises you have to make and at the end of the day, you just want the best all-rounded car. I think that’s the main answer to it all.
Norris concluded with thoughts on what he has learned as a driver, and how he has adapted his driving to what the team can give him on the track.
“I think I’ve got a better understanding of that over the past couple of years on driving styles, how I need to drive the car. Maybe making a bit of that switch from ‘I want this from the car, and I want to keep driving my way until you make it more suited me.’
“I guess I’ve kind of thrown that away and just said, ‘alright, give me the best car, and I need to adapt a lot more to the car I get given.’ It’s not the most comfortable, it’s not what I like the most, it’s now what I can get the most out of but over the last year and a half, I’ve probably learned more about my driving than I did in the previous five years, just because the car has changed, and I’ve fallen into this philosophy of give me the best car and I’ll adapt to that rather than give me the car I want.”
So far that adaptation has worked. We will see if it continues this weekend at the Chinese Grand Prix.
