Lando Norris admits that he wishes McLaren had the same problem as Mercedes in terms of performing better on Sundays than Saturdays. The Woking-based squad have often impressed in qualifying, with Norris finding himself in the top five on the grid on more than one occasion. However, this has not always translated into a similar race result. The Briton's best finish so far in 2022 has been P3 at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, but he has generally found himself towards the latter end of the top 10. When asked whether the team may have been overachieving on Saturdays, Norris told media, including RacingNews365.com : "A little bit, yeah. "I hate the saying of overachieving, because I think you just achieve what is possible on the day."
How McLaren's "problem" differs to Mercedes'
Mercedes, meanwhile, appear to perform more strongly on race days than during qualifying, as their back-to-back double podiums in France and Hungary point to, and this is something that Norris has joked about being envious of. "The field is always tighter on a Saturday than it is on a Sunday," Norris explained. "It's the same probably for every single person. You see Mercedes struggled [in France] on a Saturday, and they're like, 'Oh, what's happened? Second and third [in the race]?' I wish we had that problem!" Norris believes that the differences seen between qualifying and the race in 2022 may be more prominent than in previous years. "The cars just perform differently, and it's obvious that – maybe a bit more than the last few years – people seem to perform differently on different days, and seem sensitive to wind conditions and stuff like that on different times," he added.
Norris admits McLaren "still trying to understand" Sunday issues
Norris is pleased with his own performance on Saturdays, but admits that he and the team still have work to do in trying to figure out the differences between their qualifying and race performances. "I feel like I'm doing a good job as well," the Briton continued. "I've got to give myself a little bit of credit. My lap [in France] was genuinely a very, very good lap. "But I also need the car on that day to be able to do that job. I can't drive the wheels off, I'm just doing what the car is capable of doing. "When it comes to Sunday, you feel like you don't have necessarily the same car. We're still trying to understand all of that, and know why exactly we're able to do a better job on the Saturday than we can on the Sunday. "When you get to the point of actually competing with the top-runners in qualifying, we also can't just rely that we're suddenly quick in the race. [These are] the sort of things you've got to improve on."
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