Lando Norris highlights 'pretty different' feeling with 'powerful' McLaren

Lando Norris described his latest McLaren as feeling "pretty different", although there was no disguising the fact that it still felt "powerful", and "like a Formula 1" car.

After two days of waiting due to delays in the build of the MCL40, Norris finally appeared at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya on the third of the five days of private pre-season testing.

Following the normal system checks over the opening laps, F1's latest champion went on to complete a respectable 76 laps, with his best a 1:18.307s, just under a second behind the leading lap of the week to date from Mercedes' George Russell.

For Norris, like every driver this week behind the wheel of F1's latest iteration of car, there is a natural acclimatisation process to go through in the wake of the biggest overhaul in the sport's history, in particular with the power unit that is now run via a 50-50 split of combustion and electrical energy.

Norris cited the fact the car did feel "pretty different", albeit "not a huge step".

Assessing the differences he experienced, the British driver added: "It's a bit of a step slower in terms of cornering speeds.

"In terms of acceleration and straight-line speed, it probably feels quicker than it did last year. You get to 340, 350 [kph] quite a bit quicker than we did in previous years.

"It's a bit more of a challenge in many places, which is a good thing, but then you have a bit more to understand, from the battery, the power unit. All of those things are, in some ways, more complicated and just different.

"And whenever something's different, it always takes a bit of time to figure out the best way to look at it, to manage it, to use it, but that's what these days are for."

Norris was at least happy that the team was able "to get a good understanding", but naturally aware it is the first step on a long testing road that heads to Bahrain for six days in February following the conclusion of this week's running in Barcelona.

"This is still going to take a while," said Norris. "The conditions here are quite different to what they're going to be in Bahrain, what they're going to be in Melbourne.

"It's just trying to gather as much information, in every condition possible, whether it's going to rain in the next couple of days or be dry or whatever, the more laps we can do, the better.

"So yeah, nice to be back. Different feelings, of course. It still feels like a McLaren, it still feels powerful, it still feels like a Formula 1 car, which is the most important thing."