The long corners at Formula One’s Turkish Grand Prix, according to Lando Norris, are the reason for McLaren’s difficult weekend.
The Woking-based team is coming off two of its best weekends in recent Formula One history, finishing 1-2 in Italy and gaining pole and going close to a win for Norris in Russia a fortnight ago.
The MCL35M, on the other hand, hasn’t been as competitive around Istanbul Park this weekend, with Norris starting eighth and Ricciardo being thrown out of Q1 – before receiving an engine penalty and dropping to the back.
Despite the fact that the Turkish circuit does not have the same low downforce demands as Monza and Sochi, Norris does not believe that the wing levels are to blame for McLaren’s return to the chasing pack this weekend.
Instead, he reckons that his car is not as comfortable in the kind of long corners that are critical to a strong lap.
“I don’t think it’s anything to do with downforce,” he said. “I think it’s just the nature of the track, the types of corners you have more aligned here, as it was in Zandvoort, with these longer apex corners which we struggle in.
“I think it was kind of expected, so not a surprise for us to struggle a bit more. But of course, always when you struggle you never want to believe it until you see it in a way…”
The venue’s front-limited nature, which puts a special emphasis on the right front, was also not ideal for Ricciardo’s McLaren.
“Probably the biggest surprise was the level of grip, compared to last year, so that was a good surprise,” he said.
“The track definitely has a more front limited nature, with a lot of long corners being very stressful on the front tyres, like Turn 8 and that.
“So that’s potentially not where we’re the strongest either.”
When questioned about his personal Q1 disappointment, Ricciardo said his issue was not with McLaren’s overall competitiveness, but rather with his inability to become comfortable on the soft tyres.
“I simply wasn’t really quick enough on the soft tyre,” he said. “I struggled a bit on it on Friday, not crazy, but there was still some work to do on it.
“I think obviously we had two sets in Q1 but I still didn’t really feel like I was able to kind of get my teeth stuck into it.”
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