02/07/2025 08:20
McLaren has stated it is "biased" towards upgrading the car in
favour of Lando Norris as the Briton is more demanding when it
comes to feedback. Norris has struggled for performance behind the
wheel of the MCL39 more often this year than team-mate Oscar
Piastri. The latter currently leads the drivers' championship, with
Norris sitting 15 points behind. Norris spoke early in the year
about the challenges he was facing to get on top of the concerns he
had. It resulted in a lot more detailed conversations with the
engineers regarding his struggles, which lent itself to the car
being upgraded in his favour. "There's obviously a lot more detail
that we get in the debriefs from Lando," McLaren technical chief
Neil Houldey told media including RacingNews365 . "We've got an
understanding of what he needs to improve the car and some of the
upgrades that we've got have been biased towards his comments, as
you'd expect. "You're trying to work out what the drivers need, and
you tailor your upgrades to suit them. "But we've got a good
understanding of what he does need, and we're able to make small
improvements in a number of areas that will and have helped him
over the last few races, and will continue to help in moving
forward." Houldey added McLaren is confident it has got the car
into a window that should suit Norris going forward. "With all of
these things, we're trying to find the best of a number of
different scenarios," he said. "It was the same with the suspension
that we were concerned in one area, we worked out that that wasn't
a concern during the season. "You're just trading things to try and
find the most optimum performance, which for Lando, we think we've
found." Norris returned to form last time out in Austria as he took
his third win of the season and besting Piastri to the top spot.
