Compromised car performance still to blame for McLaren woes

McLaren is still suffering with the underlying performance of their car into the third race of the 2023 Formula 1 season.

Lando Norris runs wide on Saturday at Albert Park. (XPB Images)

Australian Oscar Piastri could only manage P16 in qualifying with teammate Lando Norris making it to Q2 but ending Saturday in P13 for Sunday’s grand prix.

“Obviously not quite what I wanted in Melbourne,” said the hometown driver.

“The field is extremely tight and there’s not a lot in it,” he said, knocked out of Q2 by just under three-hundredths of a second.

“I was reasonably happy with my lap, unfortunately, it just wasn’t quite quick enough by the smallest of margins.”

“It is what it is and we’ve got tonight to look at everything to put us in the best position to make up some places tomorrow.”

“Hopefully we will have a clean grand prix.”

Oscar Piastri on Saturday at the Australian Grand Prix. (McLaren Racing)

Lando Norris was able to stay slightly more competitive with his lap in Q2 but couldn’t find the pace to take the challenge to the top ten.

“Today wasn’t quite as good as I was hoping,” said Norris.

“The cooler conditions just made us struggle a little bit more to be consistent and get the maximum out of the car.”

“I’m not quite driving the way I want and to the level I want so I struggled to put everything together,” said Norris, also critical of his own perfomance.

“But it’s still not a bad position to start and we can hopefully try to get into the points.”

Lando Norris in the garage on Saturday at the Australian Grand Prix. (McLaren Racing)

Team Principal Andrea Stella said that while there may have been a small amount of lap time left for the two drivers, the team’s primary concern is car perfomance.

“The reality is that we don’t have enough underlying performance on the car and that we have a lot of work ahead to improve that.”

“That’s no different from what we have been saying since the start of the season and we stay determined to deliver the upgrades required to improve.”

Piastri will be looking to put on a show in front of the home crowd with lights out for the Australian Grand Prix at 3pm on Sunday (AEST).

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