Despite Lando Norris‘s earlier claim that the Bahrain circuit did not suit the characteristics of MCL38, both Norris and Piastri qualified for Q3. However, even after Friday went well for Norris and the team, the Briton has voiced his displeasure. His frustration stems from the fact that, despite his belief that he could have qualified P2, the #4 driver failed to do so because of last year’s issues. As a result, the McLaren driver is now kicking himself in the foot for losing the opportunity to challenge Max Verstappen.
In an interview with media including RacingNews365, Norris said, “I felt like myself throughout qualifying good in the car and was able to do strong laps. The last one was my worst, but the potential was there and that’s nice.”
What Norris intended to say in his statement was that McLaren did have a good chance of finishing in the front row. However, he only missed the chance to challenge Verstappen at the front because of the same error as last year.
In 2023 there have been several instances where Norris failed to deliver a strong qualifying performance. This then resulted in an utter disappointment for him as well as the team. The most notable instance is the Qatar GP qualifying, where Norris once matched the pace of Max Verstappen.
He did not, however, record the quickest time on the leaderboard because of his minor error (exceeding the track limits). Like the many errors he committed in the past, Norris succumbed to an issue at the Bahrain qualifying.
While mentioning the precise problem, Norris initially claimed that the changing wind prevented him from taking the car to its limits. However, later he did admit that a driver, regardless of the wind direction, needs to put together a strong lap run and be the ‘best in Q3.
Subsequently, Norris acknowledged that if he had completed the lap without making a mistake, he could have finished in ‘P2 or P3.’ At last, the McLaren driver said that despite the disappointment of not starting alongside Verstappen [P2], the team now knows where they still need to make improvements.
What did Lando Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri say after the first qualifying round of 2024?
Oscar Piastri finished eighth in the MCL38 just behind his teammate Lando Norris. However, keeping the standings aside, what caught the attention of the fans and Piastri was the time gap. Interestingly, Piastri who is placed at P8, was just 0.504s behind pole sitter Max Verstappen.
Now, if we compare the Bahrain qualifying round results from this year to those from the previous year, we can see that the difference between the first and eighth-place drivers is less than half. This indicates that there is definitely going to be intense competition on single-lap pace.
“It’s been a tricky day to be honest” ♂️
Oscar Piastri reacts to this qualifying, as he lines up P8 for Saturday’s Bahrain Grand Prix pic.twitter.com/yG4VTEgtFt
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) March 1, 2024
In light of this, Piastri, during his post-qualifying conversation, stated that even though he still had a tricky day, the incredibly narrow gap among the teams surprised him.
Piastri concluded by saying that there is not any major difference between McLaren and the teams that they will be competing against this year, like as Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull. Additionally, he pointed out that for the race, the Woking-based squad is going to be in a ‘mix.’
