Lando Norris is optimistic about McLaren's recent upgrades as they prepare for the Dutch Grand Prix, but he acknowledges that Mercedes is still a formidable competitor.
During practice on August 23, McLaren tested its first major updates since the Miami Grand Prix, where Norris celebrated his first win.
In the opening practice session, Norris showed promise by leading the pack, but by the second session, he finished fourth amid challenging windy conditions.
He noted that while McLaren has been performing well since Miami, this weekend marks their first attempt to enhance the car's performance.
"It was a nice first day back in the car, but a bit of progress needs to be made before tomorrow. Mercedes are quicker, it's close."
Norris elaborated on how competitive his rivals have been:
"I don’t think there is a quickest; it just depends on different factors. We’ve been in good form since Miami, but we’ve not really brought any updates since then.
"This weekend’s our first time trying to make a bit more progress with the car. I have no idea if it’s working or not, or how it’s performing at the minute, but today was a reasonable day and we’re there or thereabouts."
Teammate Oscar Piastri also had a strong showing, finishing second in the second practice session, just behind Mercedes' George Russell. Piastri expressed satisfaction with the car's pace and is eager to evaluate its long-run performance.
Piastri seemed pleased with the car's pace:
"Our one-lap pace looked pretty good. I need to look at our long-run pace, but it looked pretty solid. Mercedes looked quick again, so I’m expecting it to be a pretty hard-fought weekend once again."
Team Principal Andrea Stella highlighted the benefits of the mixed weather conditions, which allowed the team to test various tire setups and gather valuable data for race preparation.
He emphasized that the day was productive for both performance checks and understanding the new aerodynamic upgrades.
"Zandvoort today allowed us to test the car in all conditions, going from the wet to intermediates to dry tyres in FP1. Then in FP2 we had good running on the soft and medium tyres to compare them with a view to their potential usage in the race," Stella commented.
"It’s been a very useful day, not only for race preparation but also for gathering good data and performing checks on the aerodynamic upgrades we have this weekend."
As the competition tightens, Norris remains cautiously hopeful. The team is committed to maximizing their performance overnight, aiming to close the gap to Mercedes.
"It’s close towards the front of the pack so we’ll be working hard overnight as a team to get everything out of our package. A little bit more to find overnight, hopefully, and we can challenge the Mercedes."
With the upgrades in place, McLaren is set for a competitive challenge at Zandvoort, ready to make the most of their progress.
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