Norris gives thumbs up to latest McLaren upgrades
Lando Norris declared himself broadly satisfied by McLaren's performance on Friday at Marina Bay Street Circuit, in practice for this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix.
Norris was in possession of the latest upgrade package for the MCL60, while his rookie team mate Oscar Piastri will have to wait until next week in Japan to get the latest parts.
As a result, Norris was fourth fastest in first practice, and was sixth in the evening under the spotlights after the sun set. Piastri was out of the top ten in both sessions and up to 1.9s behind Norris in FP1.
“I think it was a reasonable Friday," Norris reported afterward. "It was good to get the new bits on the car, and everything’s looking positive from that side at the minute.
"We've definitely taken some steps forward with the new bits, they're doing what they're meant to do which is always a good thing," Norris told F1TV.
Norris owned up to "a couple of mistakes maybe which cost me a lot of time, but plenty of things for us to to improve".
"It’s a nice improvement from what we had," he continued. "I think it’s done everything that it should have done, so a good job by the team to get the upgrade here and for it all to work as it should.
"I think the pace is reasonable," he replied when asked about his expectations for the rest of the weekend. "We might not be as good as Ferrari, but we’re in a good fight for a good position otherwise.
"I think we're way too far from from Ferrari's. They're extremely good in the slow speed [corners] and pretty much all you have is slow speed," Norris added.
"But we're not too far behind. I think if we put it in a mega lap we can get close, and we're in the fight with Mercedes, Aston Martin and Red Bull."
"We were able to complete the programme we had planned, which was centred around testing new aerodynamic parts and understanding tyres for the race," confirmed team principal Andrea Stella. "We’re happy with the data collected.
"I would like to thank the team back at the factory and here trackside for the efforts that led to testing this upgrade, which has been adopted on Lando’s car this weekend.
"In terms of competitiveness, some cars look pretty quick, but we will try our best to be in the mix for good points," he added. "Oscar is doing a good job finding his feet at what is a new track for him, improving run by run."
Piastri was also pleased to get through his first day at one of Formula 1's hardest to learn circuits without any incidents or mistakes.
"A lot of learning," he admitted. "It’s a tricky circuit and I think we’ve got some work to do on the car and some work to do on the driving as well, but I definitely learned a lot.
"I think we’re in better shape with more experience for myself, but still a lot to go over ahead of tomorrow," he concluded.
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