Lando Norris has issued a negative assessment of McLaren's current state, saying that "no track" on the F1 calendar currently suits the team's MCL60 challenger. Norris and teammate Oscar Piastri have combined to score just 17 points across the first seven races of 2023, with McLaren 23 points adrift of fifth-placed Alpine. Asked whether this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve would suit the MCL60 better, Norris simply replied: "No track suits our car." "We struggle in corners. Long corners are definitely a lot worse. For us, high speed corners are the best. "We're actually very competitive high speed, I would say close to being one of the best on the track, but the opposite in the slow speed corners."
Barcelona a "disaster" for McLaren
Last time out in Spain, Norris surprised many by qualifying third on the grid, but immediately sought to manage expectations by saying he would struggle to hold onto a top-ten position in the race. Sure enough, Norris and Piastri both finished out of the points in Spain, with Norris' race ruined by a Lap 1 collision that meant he had to pit for a new nose, and the Briton added that the characteristics of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya had not played into McLaren's hands. "If you take the last sector in Barcelona, this was a disaster for us. It's so painful," said Norris. "It's different things, it's not just the fact it's a long corner. It's how you're able to drive corners, how you're able to release the brake, that we just don't have. "It's not just that we're missing 20 points of downforce on the front, 20 points of downforce on the rear, it's the actual handling characteristics of the car that we also need to fix, because there are feelings I have in the car that we've had for the last five years, and haven't changed. "So trying to still understand all of these and actually make a difference. That's also what we need if we want to compete and be a better team."
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