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.

Key facts

Drivers	Lando Norris
Laps/km/miles	101/472km/293 miles
Best laptime	1m19.568s (1st)

LANDO NORRIS, #4

“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.”

JAMES KEY, Executive Director, Technical

“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.”

Today's official testing times

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

What's next?

Daniel will take the wheel of the MCL36 tomorrow.

Test dates

Three days (Wednesday 23 - Friday 25 February 2022). 

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