Lando Norris Admits Major Car Struggles Despite Stunning Pole At United States Grand Prix

Saajan Jogia | 7 Hours Ago

Oct 18, 2024; Austin, Texas, USA; McLaren Formula 1 Team driver Lando Norris (4) of Team Great Britain walks through the paddock area before practice for the 2024 US Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

McLaren driver Lando Norris revealed that "a little kick" from his race engineer, Will Joseph, served as motivation during Q3 of the United States Grand Prix (USGP) qualifying, ultimately propelling him to secure pole position for Sunday's race. despite the driver's confidence in the car being low.

While George Russell's crash toward the closing stages of Q3 ensured Norris' lap time wasn't challenged further, he still delivered a powerful lap time of 1:32.330, which was faster than Max Verstappen's time by +0.031.

However, with his McLaren MCL38 having gone through several changes in the form of upgrades this weekend, he wasn't that confident about the car, especially after a disappointing USGP sprint race. Norris said that the words that came from Joseph reinstilled confidence in him. Joseph told Norris:

"Trust the car.

"Don't overload combined [turning and braking at the same time]. The lap time will come."

Norris revealed that he usually doesn't receive such comments from Joseph, but given his lack of confidence after Q2, the race engineer had to push him. The British driver added:

"He knows I don't normally like that kind of stuff.

"It's just because I said after Q2 that I was just not confident at all in the car. It was bouncing everywhere, and I lacked confidence at that point to put a good lap together.

"I'd been struggling in Turn 1, struggling in Turn 12, but we were there or thereabouts, so it was more just, let's get a good lap in and be there. So that's what I did.

"Whether or not what I did was because of Will's comments, I'd probably say no, otherwise I'll boost his ego too much!

"But I probably needed it a little bit, just because I was struggling a lot with the car, and we've been a bit off this weekend. A little kick never hurts sometimes."

One big concern that remains on Norris' mind for Sunday's race is the way his medium tires ran out of rubber so fast in the 19-lap sprint, while both Ferrari drivers had managed their Pirellis better, leading him to lose the second position to Carlos Sainz after locking up. Speaking on how big of a worry the tire degradation is, Norris said:

"Quite a big one. I don't want to do it again [repeat what happened in the sprint], so we'll see.

"I don't think it was as bad as it was. I think certain events led to such a thing. We improved the car quite a bit. We were definitely not contending anywhere close to pole [on Friday].

"We're still a bit off but we're in a good position. Our pace relative to Max is a bit more similar. I probably expected the Ferraris and Mercedes to be a bit quicker.

"Maybe they got a bit more out of the car earlier on in the weekend, and we've been able to take a bigger step forward between the sprint and quali, so maybe we've caught up a bit.

"But it's going to be a tough race. Ferrari were very quick in the race [sprint] with their degradation, and Max is Max. I've always said that Max is Max, and he's going to be fast.

"So I'm excited. It's going to be a good battle, and probably a good one to watch."