McLaren F1 had a tough day at Suzuka in tricky conditions. The MCL36 didn’t seem comfortable in the rain, and Lando Norris finished bottom of the standings. Happy to be back at Suzuka, the Briton is satisfied with the work of understanding accomplished.
“It’s such a cool circuit. The flow, the feeling, there are also a lot of fans despite the terrible weather today” Norris said. “It’s good to be back in the car even though it was not a very good day. We are missing a few things, we are not in the best position but we hope to improve tomorrow.”
“We were able to understand the wet and intermediate tyres, there are always things to learn, whether it’s a good day or a bad day. It was a good day for learning and understanding, but not for performance. If it’s is dry tomorrow I don’t know, if it’s raining it doesn’t look very good.”
Ricciardo discovers the evolutions of the MCL36
Daniel Ricciardo finished close to his team-mate and the Australian was able to discover the evolved version of the McLaren, since only Norris had the novelties in Singapore. He is satisfied with his day and hopes to take advantage of the things learned for the rest of the weekend, while the weather is uncertain for the race.
“It was tough conditions… but it was fun” Ricciardo said. “It was wet, it’s always fun but nothing crazy. There was a bit of standing water but when there are cars on the track it was possible to drive. It’s good to come back to Suzuka, even if it’s raining, it’s still fun.”
“Tomorrow will be the driest day, it will most likely be so it will be a different game. Sunday we don’t know, the race could be in the rain, and today could have been very useful for us.”
“I feel like it was going this morning, it was my first time with the new package. I was comfortable from the start, it was the same car with progress, nothing felt weird or abnormal. you just had to get used to it, and it was nice to push in the first sector.”
“We were less efficient in the second session, but we will work on that tonight. I don’t want to say that it will be like that for the rest of the weekend. It will depend on the conditions, the tyres. We can improve in rhythm, but I think it’s okay.