Lando Norris is hoping McLaren’s frantic post-Sepang homework will finally put an end to a straight-line speed problem that has been costing him valuable ground over the past two Formula 1 weekends.
The reigning world champion has endured a frustrating stretch since his successive wins at Budapest and Zandvoort, qualifying fifth in both Baku and Sepang before a crash ruled him out of the Azerbaijan race and a late error left him ninth in Malaysia.
Norris has previously described his McLaren’s top-speed deficit as “painful”, estimating that it has been costing him around two-tenths per lap. With Singapore offering a very different challenge, McLaren now has a chance to establish whether its recent investigation has uncovered something meaningful.
McLaren has been digging into the problem
Norris says the team has not simply focused on the headline straight-line issue. The work since Sepang has covered a much broader range of weaknesses that emerged during the difficult run.
“There was a fair few [learnings] both from my side, from us as a team from like what happened in the race, but also just general things from a car point of view and what we need to do a better job in, and how can we get back to the same level as we were in the previous few - Budapest, Zandvoort, Madrid,” Norris said in Singapore on Thursday.
“The team have been working very hard, we've all worked very hard to understand what we could learn from last weekend, what we can and need to do better in. The exact things, the specifics of it, I don't need to go into, but there was a good amount.
“There was some obvious ones, such as the straight-line speed and the issues I've been having with the car, which are obvious ones, and obviously more technical ones from, how can we unlock more potential from the car to get back to the performance that we had previously.
“So that's a tricky one to do. But there was a lot of stuff and the team have been pretty flat out, so that's a good thing.”
The emphasis is notable. While the straight-line deficit has been the most visible symptom, Norris suggests McLaren has also been trying to recover performance that has simply disappeared from the MCL40 compared with its stronger outings earlier in the season.
And the team may get a cleaner indication of its progress in Singapore.
Singapore offers McLaren a useful test
Norris believes the characteristics of the previous two circuits exaggerated some of McLaren’s weaknesses, although he is not prepared to blame the track layouts entirely for the team's recent struggles.
“Well Baku we weren't necessarily too quick either, so I wouldn't say just a Malaysia thing. There's, there's certainly some aspects of Malaysia with the roughness of the tarmac that we think does play a part,” he explained.
“It’s a good thing for us to see this weekend if some of the performance that we were missing there does come back. Singapore's a track I've enjoyed and we've been pretty good here over the last few years.
“Certainly a little bit of it is track layout and the last couple tracks have not been to the same strengths as what we've seen in Madrid and some of the other races. But all in all, we've still been underperforming to the level we need to and we want to be. So we still need to do a better job no matter what.”
Singapore's lower emphasis on outright straight-line performance should therefore give Norris a chance to assess whether the work carried out back at Woking has actually addressed the underlying problem rather than merely masking it.
He is encouraged, but hardly ready to declare victory before turning a wheel.
“Yeah, hopeful. Need to get on track first and see how much better it is,” he said.
“It's obviously also a circuit where straight lines are not like the highest priority and not as detrimental as the last few weekends. Nevertheless, you always want to go down the straights as quick as, as what you should be able to, and it's always tough when you come out of corners better and end up going slower.
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Stella admits to Sepang strategy blunder: ‘A single miscalculation’“It's been a frustrating two weekends trying to figure out what the issue's been and why there's just been a constant lack of straight-line speed and performance.
“Especially in this kind of battle we've been in the last two qualifyings, it's been two or three positions. So it's cost me quite a lot.
“At the same time, there's obviously things I can do better as well, but confident that the team have done a good job. They put a lot of work into trying to figure out things, and hopeful it'll be better this weekend, but honestly have to get out on track and, and see first.”
For Norris, Singapore is therefore less about expecting a miracle and more about finding evidence.
After two weekends in which fractions of a second have translated into several places on the grid, McLaren badly needs to know whether its latest homework has finally uncovered the missing speed.
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