McLaren treading fine line with 'sensitive' Lando Norris

McLaren has explained the fine line it must tread with car changes made for the "sensitive" Lando Norris after his struggles.

Despite leading the drivers' championship heading into the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Norris has been open about his trouble in feeling comfortable with the MCL39, especially after team-mate Oscar Piastri dominated to win in Bahrain last time out. 

Heading into the Jeddah weekend, Norris revealed that he had to "force myself" to think of the positives after his Bahrain struggles, and that the team had made some changes to the car to make him feel more comfortable.

McLaren's performance technical director Mark Temple, who previously served as Fernando Alonso's race engineer, was then questioned about the nature of these changes. 

"It is an interesting point and it is one that we've been discussing with Lando, who is an extremely talented and quite finely tuned driver and athlete," Temple told media, including RacingNews365, when asked how the current McLaren differed from the machine used at the end of 2024.

"He's very sensitive to the car, and that shows in his performances. We know what we've changed with the car, but if you're working out what the contribution to that lack of feeling completely dialled in, it is hard to know. 

"It is something we're discussing at length with him, discussing the data and understanding the changes we've made, and there is nothing obvious that you can say: 'Yeah, that is something we need to change.'

"We need to really just get into the detail and then take a very considered, careful approach to make sure we don't, a) throw away performance from the car, or b) do something which actually makes it harder for him.

"We've had a look at the last couple of races, and minor changes we've made might help, but I also think it is for him to look at the driving and understand for himself how the car behaves and how he can adapt to that."