"Disappointing and painful" season ahead, fears McLaren

Lando Norris feels McLaren might be facing a “disappointing and painful” season in 2022, after their abysmal performance at the season opener in Bahrain.

Norris says that the MCL36 is “way down on downforce” and that he doesn’t expect their problems to go away soon. Speaking to the-race following the Bahrain GP, he said:

“I’m expecting pain and I think everyone needs to know there’s going to be a bit of pain. It’s just where we are, quite simply. We just have to get a little bit used to it now.”

The Briton further went on to say:

“We’re a long, long way off. Not just a little bit. So, we’ve got to start afresh and figure some things out, find solutions. But it doesn’t mean next week we’re gonna be amazing, but in the months to come we need to understand what’s going on and how to get better.”

Since 2019, McLaren has been on an upwards trajectory, consistently competing at the top end of the mid-field and often threatening Mercedes and Red Bull. In 2022, with the new regulations, the team was expected to return to their glory days of old, consistently competing for victories and podiums. Their disappointing start to the season marks a step back from their position in the last few seasons.

---

McLaren struggling to find root cause for its woes

McLaren looked impressive in the first test in Barcelona only to fade away when the F1 circus arrived in Bahrain. The MCL36 is reportedly working well mechanically and as expected by the team, but simply lacks grip.

According to Daniel Ricciardo, the car has good balance and by adding more downforce, he hopes that the team can improve the car’s overall grip. Speaking to the-race post-Bahrain GP, the Aussie said:

“It’s a completely new car obviously for everyone this year. Some teams have found a really good chunk. Maybe it’s just we keep trying a few things with set-up and we’re like, ‘oh, that turned the car on’. We’re still optimistic we might find something even in set-up, maybe not even in an update, so let’s stay hopeful for that.”

Despite being off the pace in Bahrain, the MCL36 seems to be a decent car underneath that just needs fine-tuning. Its struggles in Bahrain might also be due to the unique characteristics of the circuit and may not carry over to other venues.

As F1’s new era is still in its infancy, the development curve for this season will be steep with teams finding chunks of time between races. If McLaren play their cards right, they might not stay at the bottom of the grid for long.