Painful conclusion for Norris: 'Maybe only AlphaTauri was slow too'

Lando Norris had a terrible weekend in Miami. The McLaren driver was out of qualifying after Q1, and in the Grand Prix a day later he finished only 17th. This season's MCL60 does not seem to be moving forward and so the British driver is gaining experience in driving in the backfield, something he will have to deal with for the first time in Formula 1. Norris hopes it won't be any worse than it was in Miami.

McLaren has been a stable performer as best of the rest in the premier class of motorsport in recent years, with fourth and fifth places in the constructors' championship, but in 2023, things are not yet looking up for the Woking-based formation. Norris is driving at the back of the field for the first time in his career and that is not doing him any good. He hopes that from the GP at Imola the line up can be started.

That should be possible because, according to Norris, the characteristics of the Miami circuit just did not suit the McLaren car. "The track doesn’t suit us, longer corners don’t suit us, the temperature doesn’t suit us, track surface doesn’t suit us. Many different aspects of it all," Norris told The Race when asked why things went so wrong in the United States last weekend.

Only AlphaTauri slower?

So while McLaren underperformed, the opposite was true for the competition. They actually seemed to feel at home on the track. “No one was slow either this weekend. Maybe the AlphaTauris were the only other slow car, everyone else was pretty quick, the Alfa Romeos were mega-fast, Haas were mega-fast, Alpines were way quicker."

Norris does not think updates from the other midfield teams are to blame for McLaren's poor performance in Miami. The 23-year-old driver blames it more on his own team, which simply did not perform well. In just over a week, Formula 1 begins a triple-header with Grands Prix in Imola, Monaco and Barcelona, respectively. So McLaren will not have to wait long for revenge.