8 March 2023 08:55 (UTC)
"After two years in the design process, it's great to finally see the MCL36 on track"
Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Wednesday 23 February
Hear from McLaren Formula 1 driver Lando Norris, and Executive Director, Technical, James Key after Day 1 of the pre-season test.
Drivers | Lando Norris |
Laps/km/miles | 101/472km/293 miles |
Best laptime | 1m19.568s (1st) |
“I’m really happy to be back behind the wheel. It’s nice to be in the car again and get to push the limit. It’s been good for me to get used to this new car, because I’ve driven the same regulations for my whole F1 career.
“It’s nice to have a change and it was a productive day. We learned a lot of things for the team, and we got all the information we wanted to. We can now compare it back to the simulator and the wind tunnel. A good day, and a good start to this test.”
“After two years in the design process, it’s great to finally see the MCL36 on track, alongside all of the other new cars. It’s remarkable how many laps have been completed by teams today, considering how new these cars are, and how much there is to learn. It’s good to see F1 getting winter testing off to such a positive start.
“This has been a productive first day for us. We’re not taking any notice of lap times at the moment, it’s all about learning and following our own directions and priorities. We gathered some important data points during this first day of testing and learned a great deal, both to carry forward for the rest of this test and also to use as we develop the car further.
“Like many teams, we undertook initial runs with aero rakes on the car this morning which provided some useful initial correlation data. Aerodynamics is the biggest change with the ’22 cars so it is important to take some basic initial measurements at an early stage. Through the rest of the day, we did a fair amount of set-up and exploratory work, beginning to understand the car and the tyres a step at a time. I think we can be pleased with the number of laps we’ve covered with Lando today and look forward to going again with Daniel tomorrow.”
1 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1:19.568s | 101 laps |
2 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:20.165s | 80 laps |
3 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 1:20.416s | 73 laps |
4 | George Russell | Mercedes | 1:20.784s | 77 laps |
5 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:20.929s | 50 laps |
6 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | 1:21.276s | 52 laps |
7 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 1:21.638s | 121 laps |
8 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | 1:21.746s | 127 laps |
9 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing | 1:22.246s | 147 laps |
10 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | 1:22.572s | 23 laps |
11 | Alex Albon | Williams | 1:22.760s | 66 laps |
12 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | 1:22.962s | 23 laps |
13 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 1:23.327s | 67 laps |
14 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | 1:23.379s | 66 laps |
15 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas | 1:24.505s | 20 laps |
16 | Robert Kubica | Alfa Romeo | 1:25.909s | 9 laps |
Daniel will take the wheel of the MCL36 tomorrow.
Three days (Wednesday 23 - Friday 25 February 2022).
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.
