Lando Norris reveals true cost of painful and mysterious McLaren issue

Lando Norris has revealed the mystery straight-line speed deficit ailing his McLaren has cost him "two or three positions" in each of the last two qualifying sessions.

McLaren continues to investigate the problem, which was only affecting Norris' car and not team-mate Oscar Piastri's, but believes it has fixed the faulty components and that everything should be okay at the Singapore Grand Prix.

The issue first surfaced in Baku and resurfaced in Sepang, with Norris losing out purely on the straights while matching or outperforming Piastri through the corners.

McLaren estimated the deficit at around one to two tenths of a second per lap, caused by a small but consistent loss of top speed in power-limited sections of the circuit.

Team principal Andrea Stella monitored the situation closely alongside McLaren's power unit partner, Mercedes High Performance Powertrains, though the exact cause has not been disclosed.

"We should say that the issue we see on Lando's car is about a lack of straight-line speed," Stella said at the time to explain the nature of the problem.

"So we see that in the power-limited section, the car accelerates a little less and develops a little bit less top speed, all the other parameters being the same. We talk about probably between one and two kph; they are small quantities."

"We can quantify even a lap time loss that I would say in excess of one-tenth of a second, possibly between one and two tenths of a second, and a different conversation is about why that is, and while we can talk immediately about a lack of power, in reality there can be different reasons."

Norris endured two 'frustrating' weekends

McLaren believes it has resolved the issue for the weekend at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, where the problem would have been less consequential anyway.

Asked whether he expected everything to be back to normal for the Singapore Grand Prix, Norris told media including RacingNews365: "Yeah, hopeful... It's obviously also a circuit where straights are not the highest priority and not as detrimental as the last few weekends."

"But nevertheless, you always want to go down the straights as quickly as you should be able to. And it's always tough when you come out of corners better and end up going slower."

"So, it's been a frustrating two weekends trying to figure out what the issue's been and why there's just been a constant lack of straight-line speed and performance."

Norris made clear just how costly the problem has been in a championship fight where small margins matter, even if — sitting fifth in the standings and 132 points adrift of Kimi Antonelli — his F1 drivers' title defence is all but over.

"And especially in this kind of battle we've been in, the last two qualifyings it's been two or three positions," Norris added. "So, it's cost me quite a lot."

"At the same time, there's obviously things I can do better as well. But confident that the team have done a good job."

"They put a lot of work into trying to figure things out, and I'm hopeful that it'll be better this weekend..."