racingnews365.com·
Lando Norris voices 'special moment' as McLaren eye improvement
Lando Norris has said that running the #1 on his car across the
five-day Barcelona test was a “special moment” for the entire team,
which has already identified "areas to improve". It was a mixed
week of running at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for McLaren,
which opted not to run until Wednesday. From the get-go, it was not
smooth running for the Woking-based outfit, which encountered a
fuel system issue on Thursday that saw Oscar Piastri lose an entire
afternoon of running. Thankfully for both drivers, the final day of
running went smoothly for McLaren, with Norris setting the
third-fastest time of the test overall. Across his running, the
reigning world champion completed 163 laps, allowing him and the
team to outline where improvements are needed ahead of the next
test in Bahrain. "[Friday] was a valuable day of learning, and it
felt great to be back in the car," said Norris. "I’m grateful to
the entire team for their hard work and support. "It’s a pleasure
to drive another McLaren this year, and running the No.1 for the
first time was a special moment for all of us throughout the
Shakedown. "We’ve identified opportunities and areas to improve,
and we’re excited to see what we can do back in Woking as we
prepare for Bahrain. "We have plenty of additional things to learn
this week in the simulator, alongside our Simulator and Development
Drivers, and I'm looking forward to getting to work on those.
"These cars definitely require a new way of thinking and driving
and the more time spent working on those, the better prepared we
will be for the start of the season."
