McLaren reveal three factors behind dominant Lando Norris display

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has outlined three critical reasons for Lando Norris' sublime qualifying performance at the Austrian Grand Prix.

The British driver claimed the 11th pole position of his F1 career at the Red Bull Ring, setting a lap-time over half a second clear of Charles Leclerc in second.

Oscar Piastri could only manage third in the other McLaren, but that was due to Pierre Gasly's spin late in Q3, which robbed the Australian of the opportunity to set a second timed lap.

Nonetheless, Stella was extremely pleased by what he saw, and glowing in his praise of Norris and the whole McLaren team.

"First of all, it was very reassuring, very encouraging to see such a strong lap time put together by Lando, and overall, to see that the two McLarens have been very competitive across pretty much every session during this weekend," the Italian told media, including RacingNews365.

"I think there's a combination of factors which contributed to the performance of the car being so strong, at least on a single lap and new tyres.

"I think it does have to do with the characteristics of the track. There's a few corners here in which we could see from the GPS overlays that our car was able to carry a significant amount of speed.

"And this one, I think, has to do with where our car is optimised from a development point of view," he added before laying out the second factor: "Definitely, Lando is a little bit of a specialist in Austria. We have seen this before."

The 25-year-old claimed the first podium finish of his F1 career at the Austrian Grand Prix in 2020 and was immediately on the pace in Spielberg this weekend, despite sitting out FP1 for McLaren junior Alex Dunne.

Norris likely would have claimed a first victory in the Styrian Alps 12 months ago had it not been for his late-race incident with Max Verstappen, which forced him into retirement.

The article continues below.

Third and final reason

Stella underlined a third and final reason for the domineering pace shown by the MCL39 in Austria, emphasising how recent upgrades to the car have improved an already competitive package.

McLaren has introduced an updated front suspension and front and rear corners at the Red Bull Ring to complement new set-up options, which have benefited Norris.

"But there's a third factor, which is the one that I would like to remark on the most, and it's the fact that we have delivered some upgrades here," the 54-year-old said.

"This is the first part of some upgrades that we will deliver as well in one of the future races to complete the upgrade package. And then, pretty much, there will be only minor things for the remainder of the season.

"This upgrade has been the result of quite a lot of work. It has not been easy to find improvements for what was already a competitive package on the MCL39.

"And I want to praise the work of the aerodynamic group in being able to ultimately finalise the geometries that seem to have performed well and elevated the performance of the car, and overall, all the team men and women at McLaren who worked hard to deliver these upgrades trackside.

"So, multiple factors, but this is only new tyres, low fuel qualifying. We will see tomorrow in the race..."