McLaren could be in trouble in Belgium
After two consecutive podiums, McLaren expects a decrease in performance in Belgium. The team will have more difficulty in preparing the car due to the sprint race weekend.
McLaren has returned to the front of the grid in the last three Grand Prix. Lando Norris finished 2nd in Great Britain and Hungary. Results that could be halted during the Belgian Grand Prix.
The McLaren is good on circuits with high-speed corners, but some corners are slow.
(E) Even though Spa is usually mentioned as one of the high-speed tracks, in reality, the fastest corner, Turn 10, Pouhon, is taken flat out in qualifying, but there are many slow corners. In the first corner, La Source, it is taken at 80 km/h, the eighth corner, Les Combes, is taken at 95 km/h, and in the last slow corner, it’s the chicane taken at 90 km/h, » explained Andrea Stella.
For the director of the Woking stable, slow corners are the key to achieving a good lap time. « I don’t want to repeat myself, but I approach them with some caution because in these three corners, right now, we can see that we are losing time. So, I think that’s where we stand. Additionally, it will also be a sprint challenge. Therefore, apart from pure performance, the speed at which you adapt your car to the demands of the track will be important », says the Italian from the British stable.
The Belgian Grand Prix will be a sprint race weekend, so teams will have less time to prepare the cars. Spa is also a demanding track in terms of understanding, for example, of your ride heights, because with Eau Rouge, you cannot run too low, otherwise you would have issues under the car. Therefore, the speed at which you can set up your car can make a difference for the performance of the entire week.
Despite the improvements, slow turns are also challenging for Lando Norris.
« The car does not always behave as I would like a car to behave. If you asked, “What do you expect from a perfect car?”, I feel like it’s really far from what I currently have. It’s a combination of targeting low-speed turns and load, while also having maneuverability. If we can improve these two elements together, it’s already pretty much the biggest step we need to take and we will probably eliminate all our weaknesses, then we will simply be strong », explained the British McLaren driver.
