McLaren did not find its pace in Miami
After two good weekends, McLaren had a chaotic weekend in Miami. Norris and Piastri, respectively 16th and 19th, never managed to find their rhythm. Both drivers are already focused on the next races.
In Baku, McLaren seemed to come alive and had regained the pace that seemed to be missing from their cars since the beginning of the season. It was with hopes and improvement that the Woking team set off to Miami, Florida. But unfortunately, McLaren never managed to find their rhythm on the street circuit.
A complicated Friday
From Friday onwards, McLaren struggled on the track. During the first free practice sessions, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were positioned twelfth and sixteenth respectively, over 1.5 seconds behind George Russell, who took the top spot. Things improved a bit for Lando Norris in the afternoon during the second free practice session, managing to secure sixth place. His teammate remained in sixteenth place, unable to find his rhythm.
At the end of this day, the two McLaren drivers still saw some positive aspects, especially regarding the improvements made. “I think today we may have been a bit better than we expected. The improvements we made in Baku have helped us a bit here, which is a good thing,” stated Norris at the end of the first day. “It was a positive day. We had a clean day and stuck to our plan. We learned a lot about the tires, the soft ones for me and the hard ones for Oscar,” he added.
Oscar Piastri also appeared optimistic at the end of Friday’s session. The Australian had set very high foundations for qualifying: “I think we can still manage to reach Q3. It’s very tight at the moment, we could end up anywhere between making it to Q3 and being eliminated in Q1. It’s been the same way since the beginning of the year, very close.”
A nightmarish Saturday
But this objective for both McLarens quickly turned into a nightmare. From the final free practice session, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri positioned themselves in 18th and 19th place in the standings, 1.8 seconds behind the leader. Only Nyck de Vries did worse.
And the qualification also turned into a disaster for the Woking team. From Q1, both drivers, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, were eliminated. The Brit missed out on Q2 by 69 milliseconds. A small margin, but it will make his race a nightmare as overtaking is very difficult on this track.
After this elimination, Lando Norris spoke up and finally mentioned a lack of pace in the McLaren during this weekend. « I made several mistakes, including one that cost me a spot in Q2. But to be honest, we couldn’t have done better than 15th. »
Questioned about the reasons for this lack of pace in Miami, after the successful weekends in Baku and Melbourne, Lando Norris believes that there have been no updates on the car since the beginning of the season. “We didn’t have any pace this weekend, it’s tough. The circuit simply doesn’t suit us. We’re coming from Baku and Melbourne, which are tracks that suit us well, which explains our improvement in those Grand Prix,” asserted the British driver.
As for him, Oscar Piastri was obviously disappointed with this result. With a unconvincing pace, the McLaren driver didn’t expect a great result: “It was very tight with everyone around us. We knew it was going to be difficult today and that proved to be true. We will take a look and see what we can do tomorrow to try to move forward.”
A Sunday putting an end to the disaster
On Sunday, nothing improved for the two drivers of the orange team. De Vries collided with Lando Norris from the rear. The strategy adopted by McLaren can also raise questions. Starting on soft tires at the beginning, both drivers made pit stops on the fifth and sixth lap to switch to hard tires with the intention of going until the end of the Grand Prix. A mechanical issue also prevented Oscar Piastri from driving faster.
After the race, Lando Norris was disappointed with this result. McLaren sees Alpine catching up in the constructors’ standings. « We simply lacked pace. We didn’t have the speed to compete against anyone. We were relatively alone, said the Briton. « We need to continue what we’re doing with the car because we’re not doing anything wrong, he added.
Oscar Piastri, on the other hand, wants to focus on the future after this disappointment in Miami. It was a very tough weekend, obviously. But I think we need to stay motivated and continue to develop the car and take it to the top, stated the former Alpine Academy driver.
