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McLaren have had a rather underwhelming first half of the 2022 F1 season, with the team unable to convert their strong qualifying pace to points. The most recent example of this is Lando Norris' P4 qualifying position at the 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix, with which he could only manage a P7 on Sunday.
McLaren boss Andreas Seidl claims the car suffers with downforce, as compared to the likes of Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes. While the MCL36 seems to perform well on fresh tires during the shorter qualifying sessions, the significantly longer races expose the car's problems.
As reported by Motorsport, Seidl explained the areas in which McLaren need to improve to have a stronger second half of the season:
“I would say mainly on the downforce side. Obviously, you can mask quite a lot with the grip tyres are having on one lap in qualifying. But then, over the race distance, the lack of performance or downforce is obviously eating into the tyres. And I guess that’s why you then see the bigger gap over the race distance.”
“In terms of race pace, I guess compared to Alpine for example, we were in good position [in Hungary]. Definitely in a better position compared to the previous weekend in [France]. I think thanks to the upgrade that we brought to France, which we further optimised for here in terms of usage, thanks to the work the team has also put in, in terms of learning from what we have seen in Paul Ricard, I guess we made a good step forward here.”
He added:
“Now it’s simply important to keep going and keep further improving the car, because when you see the lap time difference, which is still there also in qualifying, it is clear that [the top teams] simply have a much stronger car.”
McLaren, who held fourth in the constructors' standings for the majority of the first half of the season, lost the place to Alpine. The French outfit now enjoys a four-point advantage over the Britons, who stand fifth.
Lando Norris "knows what he signed up for" with McLaren, despite poor performances
Lando Norris shocked the world by signing a four-year contract extension with the Woking-based team at the start of 2022. Despite having a difficult season this year, the Briton insists that he knows his goals and where the team currently stands. He emphasized that he has faith that, together, he and McLaren will make it to the top.
In an interview with Channel 4, he said:
“I love it there. Always want to be quicker, I always want a quick car, but I knew what I signed up to of course. I knew it was going to take some time. I’m not expecting this year that we’re going to be winning and scoring podiums every weekend.”
Lando Norris currently stands seventh in the drivers' standings with 76 points to his name.
