McLaren dismisses Norris’ rear-end concerns, attributing them to Bahrain’s track traits rather than inherent car weaknesses after pre-season testing.
A point of curiosity surrounding the McLaren F1 MCL39 has been Lando Norris’ comments after his Bahrain test regarding the rear-end weakness.
While no car is ever perfect, his suggestion that things were not as strong in this area as the team would have liked raised a few eyebrows.
However, as Andrea Stella suggested, even if Norris’ remarks were based on a legitimate first impression of the car, they may not be unusual for a team aiming to be fast in Bahrain.
“Lando’s comments on the rear instability were accurate,” the Woking team principal told us.
“At the same time, when you come to Bahrain, I would be very surprised if there were no rear-end and traction limitations. In a way, these limitations are inherent to the circuit we are racing on.”
With the team having worked extensively to provide its drivers with a stronger rear end for the final day, Stella felt things were not far from what was desired.
And he stated that the only time such issues had been completely eliminated was thanks to radical concepts like blown floors, which were commonplace in the early 2010s—referring to an experience he had while working at Ferrari.
“We believe we have made progress in this regard, but improvement always comes in increments that will never fully eliminate these kinds of problems. The only time I have seen something change so dramatically was when we had the exhaust effect in the diffusers.”
“If you go back to 2011, 2012, I was with my previous team, and we introduced the blown diffuser from one session to the next. No more traction issues! It was a radical shift in aerodynamic behavior.”
“But since we cannot do whatever we want within the framework of fixed regulations, we always face the same limitations. Ultimately, the goal is to keep reducing these limitations as much as possible.”
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Norris Flags Rear Instability, McLaren Stays Calm in Bahrain Norris Flags Rear Instability, McLaren Stays Calm in Bahrain
