Lando Norris shuts down question over start fears as McLaren discovery revealed

McLaren driver Lando Norris shut down a question about concerns over his poor F1 starts after taking pole position for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

And he revealed that McLaren have found “a couple of things” since last weekend’s Dutch GP as the team attempt to rectify their recent start-line issues.

Lando Norris shuts down question as pivotal Italian GP start looms

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Norris converted pole into a second career victory at Zandvoort last Sunday, recovering from a poor getaway to record the biggest margin of victory so far in F1 2024.

Starts have emerged as a weakness for Norris as the season has developed, with the pole-sitting McLaren driver also falling behind Max Verstappen off the line in Spain in June.

Appearing in the post-qualifying press conference, Norris shut down a question from a reporter asking if he had any concerns of a repeat of Zandvoort ahead of the long run down to the first corner in Italy.

Before the journalist had finished posing the question, Norris said: “I’m not.”

Lando Norris vs Oscar Piastri: F1 2024 head-to-head battles

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👉 F1 2024: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

With both Norris and Piastri losing positions at the start of the Dutch GP, the former had earlier claimed that McLaren had found “a couple of things” in their post-race review of Zandvoort.

And he revealed that the MCL38’s practice starts have noticeably improved at Monza, with the team making “progress” in that area this weekend.

He told media including PlanetF1.com: “What have we learned [since Zandvoort]? A couple of things.

“For sure, we of course review things like we always do and I feel like we’ve made progress so far with our practice launches and stuff like that, so just crack on and do our best.”

Norris and Piastri will line up for McLaren’s first front-row lockout since the Hungarian Grand Prix, where the latter set himself up for his maiden victory after taking the lead at the first corner.

Piastri, who found himself stuck behind George Russell at Zandvoort after his poor start, believes the long run to the first chicane represents “a good opportunity” to once again take the lead from Norris.

Yet he is convinced that more chances will come as the race unfold, with tyre graining and degradation set to be a major factor in the outcome of the race.

Asked to pinpoint his best opportunities to beat Norris on Sunday, Piastri said: “I think the start is always a good opportunity. It’s a long run to Turn 1 here.

“Obviously, we as a team need to do a bit of a better job than last week unless we plan on doing bad starts and just creating a roadblock.

“I think that is an opportunity, but there will be more opportunities tomorrow.

“I think the strategy is still a bit of a question mark. No one’s really done more than 10 laps on a set of tyres, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens.

“I think it’ll be a pretty interesting one even after the first lap.”

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