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McLaren launch Lando Norris investigation after repeated race start issues
By Thomas Maher,
1 day ago
Max Verstappen and Lando Norris at the head of the pack.
McLaren’s Andrea Stella has said some emphasis will be put on figuring out whether Lando Norris’ first-lap issues are a pattern or just circumstantial.
Norris has failed to convert any of his F1 pole positions into a race victory and, following another difficult start to a race in Belgium, his first-lap struggles will be explored in greater detail by his McLaren team.
Andrea Stella: Lando Norris’s situation ‘very marginal’
Norris started the Belgian Grand Prix from fourth place, only to fall to seventh after Turn 1 as he put a wheel in the gravel simply by running slightly wide out of La Source.
This incident came just after he fell down to third from pole position at the race start in Hungary, while his pole position in Spain turned into third on the first lap.
The most egregious mistake came in the Chinese GP Sprint when Norris fell down to seventh on the opening lap from his first-place grid slot.
Consistently losing places on the first lap despite producing great qualifying results, Andrea Stella downplayed the significance of the errors but explained that McLaren would work with Norris to identify opportunities to do better in these situations.
“These kinds of situations, they’re always very marginal,” Stella told media including PlanetF1.com after the Belgian GP error.
“I think Lando got a little distracted from what was happening on the inside and ran out of track.
“It’s marginal things like this, I think, require little adjustments here and there.
“Certainly, we work with Lando, like we work with Oscar [Piastri], to try and see all the opportunities in which we can improve individually, but also collaborate better, to either be more prepared or to use better our abilities and talents.
“I think it doesn’t necessarily change our attitude, but definitely gives us some elements to analyse as to how some of these missed opportunities manifest themselves.
“Like for Lando, for instance, he looks like there are statistically some opportunities that tend to happen in the early stages of the race, so we need to check whether this is for a reason, or it’s just random.
“But like any other athlete or any other driver, I think Lando himself will talk to the team, we like to think ‘What can I do better?’ To make sure we capitalise on the good work we are doing.
“I think he was in a good starting position still, but then once we lost the position at the start with this low deg and difficult overtaking, we definitely made our life difficult.”
With F1 taking a mandatory two-week shutdown for the summer break, Norris explained his perspective on his difficult starts and said he’s welcoming a chance to take a breather from the relentless F1 calendar.
“I think I just need it to reset,” Norris told media, including PlanetF1.com, in reference to the summer shutdown.
“I’ve given away a lot of points over the last three, four races, just because of stupid stuff and mistakes, bad starts.
“I don’t know why. It’s just silly things, it’s not even difficult stuff. It’s just Turn 1, try to stay out of trouble, try to make sure there’s a gap and not get hit and I put myself off the track, so just some stupid things.
“The pace is good, the team is doing an amazing job, so I’m happy and in a way, I feel like I just don’t want to take a break, I just want to continue, because we’re in good form.
“Even today, I feel like the pace was very strong, but just the last two, three races, I’ve just not clicked as much as I needed to and given up a lot of points.
“Obviously my starts have not been great. I’ve lost probably a good amount of points off the line and now Turn 1 again, easily a podium or even more.
“There isn’t one reason, it’s just probably trying a bit too hard and paying the price for that.”
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