Lando Norris ended the second free practice session (FP2) for the Italian Grand Prix with a pessimistic tone. The McLaren driver could only manage fourth place, 0.384s behind George Russell's Mercedes at the top. More tellingly, he admitted to being puzzled by his car's performance, which was unexpectedly weak in the corners where it was supposed to excel.
"Not very decent, just struggling a lot more with pace," said Norris. "To be honest, in the corners we expected to be good at, we're bad. And the corners we expected to be bad at, we're not so bad at, but we're still off. So, we're not in a great place at the minute. We'll see what we can do overnight."
GPS traces show that Norris and teammate Oscar Piastri are losing significant time on the straights compared to Russell. This could be a combination of the MCL40's lack of aerodynamic efficiency and a different battery deployment profile. Norris also hinted at losing almost a tenth of a second in the high-speed Variante Ascari chicane, which should naturally be a strong point for McLaren.
However, there is a positive note: McLaren introduced its latest rotating rear wing, dubbed the 'H-Wing', and technical director Neil Houldey confirmed it worked as expected. "We're reasonably pleased with the car's balance between high- and low-speed sections, though we are around three-tenths off where we want to be," said Houldey. "The new H-Wing performed well, as expected. Our focus this evening will be on fine-tuning the energy management, as there is still an opportunity to find lap time through better harvesting and deployment."
Norris, who comes in as the defending champion and with back-to-back wins in Hungary and the Netherlands, now admits his chances of taking pole position at the Monza circuit are slim. "It's going to be tougher than before, for sure," he said. "It's close between a lot of the guys at the top. The guys behind are not that far behind either, so they can easily surprise us. I definitely don't feel we're in the fight for pole at all. But we just need to focus on getting a decent result."
Ferrari also poses a serious threat, with Charles Leclerc second in FP2, aided by an upgraded power unit and track-specific aero updates. The battle at the front promises to be intense, and McLaren will need to work hard overnight to find its best performance before qualifying.
Baca Juga
Red Bull mengakui masalah keseimbangan pada mobil setelah keluhan radio Max Verstappen di GP Italia. Pierre Wache menjelaskan tantangan yang dihadapi tim di Monza.
Ferrari menghadapi dilema di Monza: menambah kecepatan di trek lurus atau memperbaiki keseimbangan SF-26 yang dikeluhkan Hamilton, sementara Mercedes masih memimpin.
Charles Leclerc memulai GP Italia di Monza dengan memimpin FP1 dan P2 di FP2. Ia mengaku tahu kelemahan SF-26 dan fokus memperbaikinya.
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