Confident Lando relishing Madring challenge

After maximising the car’s potential on a less favourable Monza layout, the McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team are keen to turn the corner - and Lando Norris is excited to see 22 of them in Madrid.

Italy’s Temple of Speed, with its free-flowing, high-speed straights, did not fully match the MCL40’s current strengths, making a 22-point haul between Lando in P4 and Oscar in P5 a commendable return.

But just a short hop across the Mediterranean Sea is the brand-new Madring Circuit, which offers a very different challenge.

The venue, which has become the new home of the Spanish Grand Prix, is the centre of much intrigue ahead of its Formula 1 debut.

Combining high-speed and heavy braking zones, with sharp elevation changes, a twisty and technical section, and even a 24% gradient at the banked curve of La Monumental, the circuit promises a unique test for drivers and teams.

Lando and Oscar both like what they see and are confident the track is better suited to the MCL40.

“I'm hoping a few corners can help shift us back in the direction of being more competitive and give us a better chance of winning,” said Lando, who won the two races prior to Italy in Budapest and Zandvoort.

“Just the layout of everything is very different to Monza, but more in line with Zandvoort.  “The fact you've got some kind of cambered corners, off-camber, I think you have a good combination of all speed ranges, slow, medium, and high.

“It's very difficult to predict these things, and I don't like to waste my energy doing so, but there's certainly less places that visually look - that we know of - as much of a test for the car compared with Monza, the slow speed and overall efficiency of the car with the straight lines.”

For all the hours Lando and Oscar have spent learning the circuit on the simulator, there’s only so much preparation that can replicate the reality of driving a new street circuit at F1 speeds.  Free Practice 1 and Free Practice 2 will therefore be about discovery, with grip, speed and visibility among the biggest unknowns.

“I think just the main thing you always lack on a simulator is the speed sensation,” Lando explained. “The biggest question is grip - grip allows you to either have a lot of confidence or very little, so that's the biggest question straight away.

“Otherwise, the thing you miss and the thing that's most different when you get in the car is the perception of acceleration and speed. And that's what you really miss the most in the simulator that makes it real nowadays.

“So, for the most part, everything I think on the sim is good. It's just when you go around T12 here, when you approach some of the corners, you're approaching it pretty quick.

“But in the simulator, you don't necessarily feel like you're approaching that quickly, so I think that's the tougher part on Friday to adapt to.”

Lando starts the weekend with 171 points in the Drivers’ Championship, 96 back from leader Kimi Antonelli.

He has not yet tasted victory in Spain in his Formula 1 career, but finished P2 in the last two Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, and was P3 there earlier this season, under the race’s new guise as the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.

Oscar won last season’s race but, like his teammate, is prepared for a whole new challenge at a different track.

“It looks like an interesting track. And on the sim, once you get into the rhythm of things, it was fun to drive,” he said.

“Whether you can get into the same rhythm in real life, I'm not sure, because I probably would have written off a few cars if I tried to do everything like I did in the sim. But I think it's the same for everybody. So it looks like it's got potential to be fun.

“Again, we don't know exactly where we're going to sit. If I was to hazard, I guess I'm hoping that we're going to be more competitive here than we were in Monza.

“That's not to say we were bad in Monza. But I think if we're a bit stronger here, we could be fighting certainly for the podium and hopefully for the win.”