Bahrain International Circuit, Thursday, 22 February

Hear from McLaren Formula 1 drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, as well as Head of Testing José Manuel López, after day two of pre-season testing.

“Another day of testing done. We ran into some small issues that set us back today so we couldn’t get all the running we wanted to do in the second session, especially at high fuel. There’s still some work to do on the balance of the car but there were still a lot of things learned which is good. We have plenty to look into tonight and some different things to try and examine tomorrow.” 

“A slightly shorter morning than planned today due to the red flag, however, it was still a very useful session. We worked through a lot, focussing on set-up work whilst dialling the car in. The pace seems reasonable and we're making decent progress with our test programme. Another solid day and I look forward to getting more laps in tomorrow.”

José Manuel López, Head of Testing

“Another day of testing completed in Bahrain. Whilst it was less straightforward due to the red flag caused by an issue with the circuit, we still collected a lot of data and learned more and more about the MCL38. With Oscar, we completed some rake work to collect data for our aerodynamics team as part of a combined programme across both mornings, as well as some set-up work.

“We then used the extra time in the afternoon session with Lando to collect more aerodynamic data and study some characteristics. We also focused on short runs on soft tyres, car set-up, performance runs and race runs, before we ran into a small fuel system issue which we fixed and went out again.

“We’ll have a good debrief this evening and prepare with the engineers, mechanics, drivers, and support team back at the factory, before taking all of our learnings into the final day of testing.”

Today's official testing times

Test dates

Three days (21 - 23 February, 2024).