McLaren undoubtedly seems to have the fastest car this season, and they look like the favorites to win this year’s championship after winning two of the first three races. But Lando Norris isn’t entirely happy with the car, as he has pointed out the fault in the MCL39.
“We still want to try and focus on some areas more than others. We’ve struggled a bit more with the rear than we would have liked,” said Norris during the pre-season tests.
Norris even said that the car doesn’t “suit” him during the Chinese Grand Prix. In short, Norris argued that the MCL39 is difficult to tame.
Despite providing him the fastest car of his career, McLaren CEO Zak Brown isn’t offended. Instead, the American agreed, but at the same time he even reasoned that it’s the usual nature of the cars which are ‘over the limit’.
“Anytime you get a car on the limit, it’s going to do something that exceeds its limit eventually. The perfect race car, you can still get it to be tricky to drive when you try and go 11 tenths. So I think the drivers over one lap to extract maximum performance out of the car, it can be a bit tricky, a bit on edge, but that’s what race cars do when they’re on the limit,” said Brown.
Brown’s point can be validated with Max Verstappen’s title-winning Red Bull cars. While the Dutchman was dominant with them, his teammates found it difficult to drive the cars. As a result, Verstappen has now had three different teammates in the last five months.
So, while it might not be the case for all F1 cars, it could be true for the cars of this generation. On the other hand, the predicaments at McLaren aren’t actually bothering Norris. He is currently leading the championship by a point, and is likely to extend his lead in the races ahead.
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P2Lando Norris joins Mika Hakkinen, Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost as the only McLaren drivers to begin a season with three successive top-two finishes. pic.twitter.com/2JXwESKjTB
— The Race (@wearetherace) April 9, 2025
But that isn’t stopping McLaren from improving after receiving feedback from their drivers. Andrea Stella revealed that McLaren is trying to find solutions.
“We know that with Lando, there’s one aspect of the car that we need to improve to give him a little bit more of a natural flow when having to deliver the first lap,” said Stella to The Race. “I think this has now been very well identified, and we plan to do some further work in the coming races.”
Regardless, McLaren seems a level above others. Even if Verstappen seems to be a threat, the RB21 doesn’t seem to be a car that can help the 27-year-old cause McLaren too many problems. So, this is ideally McLaren’s season to lose.
