Bahrain International Circuit, Friday 18 March

Hear from McLaren Formula 1 drivers Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, and Executive Director, Racing, Andrea Stella after practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

“Today was always going to be a tough day, trying to make up for the lack of long running that we missed out on last week at the test. We stuck to our run plan and can take some positives from the day, but there’s a lot of work to do to be competitive. That will be our aim overnight, we’ll go and analyse the data, work out where we can improve and do what we can to get the car in a better place for tomorrow.”

“It’s good being back in the car and back out on track but we didn’t have the smoothest day. Unfortunately, we missed out on some running this evening, so we’ve got our work cut-out tonight. We’ve also got some pace to find, but it’s only day one. We’ll keep at it, study the data tonight and try to make up for it tomorrow morning, before qualifying.”

ANDREA STELLA, Executive Director, Racing

“After today, it looks like we have some work to do from a performance point of view, and we will do that overnight, trying to be as ready as possible for qualifying and the race. We needed to stop Daniel a little early this evening to investigate a water leak. This is nothing too serious and will be fixed for the remainder of the weekend. Despite this, today we could achieve pretty much all the programme we had planned. Following the issues we had at the test, today we made a step forward with our brake cooling, thanks to rapid work done at the factory to deliver new parts.”

Sign up now

McLaren Plus is our free-to-join fan loyalty programme, bringing McLaren fans closer to the team with the most inclusive, rewarding and open-to-all fan programmes in motorsport.

Sign up now, or current members can amend their details in the form below if necessary.