McLaren have set their sights on avoiding a repeat of the difficult Miami Grand Prix after the team endured one of their toughest races of the 2023 Formula 1 season. After failing to meet their top four targets in the opening races of the season, the team have placed high hopes on the upgrades coming throughout the season. The team showed signs of improvement at the Azerbaijan GP, but were brought back down to earth with an off-pace weekend in Miami. Their P17 & P19 finish wasn't helped by technical problems and damage during the race. When asked if he believes McLaren can put together an improved showing in Monaco, Oscar Piastri pointed to the MCL60's performance issues being down to the high Miami temperatures. "I hope so. I think also, it's supposed to be a lot colder than Miami was, which we think was part of our issue as well," Piastri told media, including RacingNews365.com . "Obviously it's a very different circuit here to Miami, so hopefully it suits us a bit better. But in saying that we need to address our weaknesses in other areas, too."
Norris hoping MCL60 weaknesses aren't exposed
Lando Norris - whose future is occasionally the subject of speculation due to the non-competitiveness of the McLaren car - is optimistic of the team hiding some of their disadvantages, namely a lack of top speed. "I don't believe it's quite down the same path [as Miami]. There are some similar characteristics, but also some completely different ones," added Norris. "We're terrible on the straights, thankfully there's not too many of them here. But we're also not great in the corners, and it's got a quite a few of them here! "It's been a track we've actually done well at in the past, even at times where we didn't expect. P5 last year and P3 the year before, so we do perform probably a bit better here than maybe some other places. "In Baku we bought an upgrade, and when I say an upgrade, it was [worth] one tenth [of a second], maybe a tenth-and-a-half possibly, and it will be more at some tracks and less at some other tracks. Probably less here."
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