Lando Norris has delivered McLaren's rivals a cryptic warning that it found performance in last season's Las Vegas Grand Prix after "experimenting" with its car.
Since Sin City joined the F1 calendar in 2023, it has been a weak venue for McLaren, who are yet to finish in the top five at the unique street circuit.
Norris secured sixth for the Woking-based outfit last season despite McLaren at the time having the strongest car, a situation it again finds itself in.
Due to what happened last year and how the papaya squad also struggled in Azerbaijan last September, many expect it to be a difficult weekend for Norris and Oscar Piastri.
However, while he refused to go into precise details, Norris revealed on media day in Las Vegas that McLaren gained substantial knowledge of how to make its car work 12 months ago.
As McLaren struggled so much last year, Norris revealed that he conducted several experiments during the race, giving it an understanding of how to set its car up for this weekend.
"Because we were so bad, I just ended up trying as much stuff as I could," revealed Norris. "And it was more just – actually, I’m not going to say. I’m fighting for a lot, so I want to reveal the least amount possible.
"But I think we were so bad that you just get to a point where you try a lot. I mean, it’s probably not too difficult for people to figure out. But yeah, it’s a long race, a lot of laps, and we were struggling consistently with the same thing.
"So I was just experimenting with a lot – experimenting with my driving, with driving styles, approaches to the car, which is not always easy, trying to figure out how the car likes to get driven because it changes every weekend, and with the toys and things like that.
"So it was more... Yeah, it took us to the end of the race, the final stint, to really try and figure out what was a bit better.
"We found pace. Like, even if you look at the race trace now, you can quite easily see the final stint from me was a lot more in line with Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes."
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McLaren more confident
While the results of the experiment were very promising for McLaren, it still fell short of Lewis Hamilton's stunning final stint pace from last season in Las Vegas.
It gives Norris the confidence that McLaren can be more competitive this weekend, but not as dominant as it has been at times in 2025.
"I think Lewis’ last stint last year was pretty incredible," added Norris. "So we’re still quite a long way off what the Mercedes was, but we looked more raceable, let’s say.
"It was just too little, too late. I think we’ve learned from that. Doesn’t mean this year’s going to be mega, but it’s certainly given us a direction to go in.
"So it’s more experimenting with different things. But I’m not going to tell you. So, yeah, you can try to figure it out."
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