Lando Norris voices 'special moment' as McLaren eye improvement

Lando Norris has said that running the #1 on his car across the five-day Barcelona test was a “special moment” for the entire team, which has already identified "areas to improve".

It was a mixed week of running at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for McLaren, which opted not to run until Wednesday.

From the get-go, it was not smooth running for the Woking-based outfit, which encountered a fuel system issue on Thursday that saw Oscar Piastri lose an entire afternoon of running.

Thankfully for both drivers, the final day of running went smoothly for McLaren, with Norris setting the third-fastest time of the test overall.

Across his running, the reigning world champion completed 163 laps, allowing him and the team to outline where improvements are needed ahead of the next test in Bahrain.

"[Friday] was a valuable day of learning, and it felt great to be back in the car," said Norris. "I’m grateful to the entire team for their hard work and support. 

"It’s a pleasure to drive another McLaren this year, and running the No.1 for the first time was a special moment for all of us throughout the Shakedown.

"We’ve identified opportunities and areas to improve, and we’re excited to see what we can do back in Woking as we prepare for Bahrain. 

"We have plenty of additional things to learn this week in the simulator, alongside our Simulator and Development Drivers, and I'm looking forward to getting to work on those. 

"These cars definitely require a new way of thinking and driving and the more time spent working on those, the better prepared we will be for the start of the season."