Lando Norris claims McLaren is in more deep waters in comparison to Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes ahead of the Bahrain GP.
Before the start of the season, several teams have shown critical issues with their machinery. While some could be sandbagging, the rest could be genuine concerns.
The two teams who have openly declared problems with their cars are McLaren and Mercedes. According to them, the latter has reported issues with porpoising, which is affecting their development.
But McLaren star Lando Norris claims that they have more issues to address than what Hamilton talked about during the press conference of day three testing.
“We’re in a decent place, we know we have a lot of work to do. A lot more work to do than Lewis says he has to do!” said Norris as per the Autosport.
With a little over half an hour gone, @LandoNorris is rocking the top of the timing screens 🤘
He’s quickest with a time of 1:35.504 ⏱#F1Testing #F1 pic.twitter.com/aYNv68R1de
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 12, 2022
Also read: Pitstop boys have dropped a new track for McLaren superstar Lando Norris
Lando Norris without his teammate?
On Friday, McLaren announced that Daniel Ricciardo got diagnosed with COVID-19 and wouldn’t be there for day 3 of the Bahrain testing. However, the statement by the Woking-based outfit claimed that the Australian would be back by the start of the Bahrain GP.
Yet. McLaren has kept some safeguards in case Ricciardo fails to recover in time. On Saturday, Andreas Seidl revealed that they have an agreement with Mercedes and can use their reserve drivers.
Later in the day, Alpine released a statement declaring that they had struck an understanding with McLaren. Meaning Oscar Piastri will be available for McLaren to compete this weekend if Ricciardo remains unavailable.
In the spirit of offering maximum racing opportunities to our stable of young talent, we have agreed that @McLarenF1 may call upon BWT Alpine F1 Team Reserve Driver @OscarPiastri in the event one of their drivers is unable to race. pic.twitter.com/etmryT1UrJ
— BWT Alpine F1 Team (@AlpineF1Team) March 12, 2022
The F2 champion got promoted to F1 this year as the reserve driver for Alpine. He got a reputation as an excellent driver as he won the F2 championship in his rookie season.
Now, it remains to be seen whether McLaren opts for the services of Alpine or not. It could be an unforeseen debut for the Australian race driver if it does. Though, it would come at the sake of his own compatriot.
Also read: McLaren boss Zak Brown slams Red Bull for ‘being brutal’ on their junior drivers
