Lando Norris admitted that McLaren's low-speed weakness meant he was "nowhere near good enough" to challenge for victory in the Dutch Grand Prix sprint race. The team's latest upgrade, focusing on the rear of the car, showed promise in qualifying, with Norris just a tenth off George Russell's sprint pole.
But in the 24-lap sprint, Norris was immediately put on the defensive by Charles Leclerc, who started on soft tyres and didn't fade, eventually overtaking Norris at the start of lap 18. McLaren's rear tyre degradation, a strength in the past, became a weakness, leaving Norris unable to match the pace of the leaders.
Team principal Andrea Stella pointed to rear tyre degradation and low-speed performance as the main issues. "We were losing performance because of rear tyre degradation," he said. "We need to look at why we have so much degradation, possibly related to car set-up and driving style."
Norris expressed frustration, saying, "I just don't have the pace, especially in the slow-speed corners. We struggled so much compared to the others. The car is very good in high speed but nowhere near good enough in slow speed. We can't over-push in high speed during the race, so we can't optimise our strengths."
Despite the struggles, Norris wasn't surprised. "In Budapest we were very good in high-speed corners and pretty terrible in slow speed, but we still won. Here there are more very slow corners. So no, I'm not surprised at all. It's exactly what we expected," he added.
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