McLaren 'not really happy' with Friday in Singapore

Slight hint of disappointment in the clan McLaren in Singapore. The British team was not in the running during the first two free practice sessions on the Marina Bay circuit. With a Lando Norris only 10th and one Daniel Ricciardo far behind, in 18th place during FP2, the Woking engineers will have a lot of work between now and qualifying and the Grand Prix. The first two sessions, very studious with numerous developments introduced on Norris' MCL36, were not satisfactory.

“We had a productive session yesterday, which was important to learn our movements on the floor and pontoons as quickly as possible, explained Andreas Seidl, McLaren team principal. It is still early to judge their effectiveness. With both cars we're not really happy with yesterday's performance, so there was a lot of work going on overnight with both drivers and the engineers at the factory too. We hope to be able to make good progress today. »

An asymmetrical McLaren for Norris!

McLaren even tried a rather daring choice: installing two different bodies on the same car, that of Lando Norris. The left and right sidepods were not the same, so the Briton's MCL36 was asymmetrical! An astonishing idea but one which will help the Seidl team to study the different technical solutions for 2023. “ Of course, we still want to make progress in terms of performance this year. At the same time, it is important now to get some key directions for the development of the car for next year. This is why we have brought this development to the car today” detailed the German engineer.

With no less than 6 new features on Norris' McLaren, the Woking team will try to resist Alpine in the fight for 4th place. “We obviously want to stay in this battle alive until the last round in Abu Dhabi, but at the same time Alpine push hard too, admits Andreas Seidl. They are doing a great job so far this year, they are 18 points ahead. So it's up to us now to make sure that we have clean weekends with both cars, that we score points with both cars and hopefully that's enough to stay in the fight. » At the end of the first day in Singapore, advantage Alpine at the level of classification, sinceAlonso et Or with managed to enter the Top 8 during Free Practice 2.

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