McLaren F1 Team had a mixed set of results during the 2019 United States Grand Prix Friday. The sessions saw, Carlos Sainz Jr., get close and into the top ten, however, Lando Norris, could not repeat his teammates’ form.
Norris communicated he felt it was tricky at the Circuit of the Americas due to the uneven surface in places. He explained that with the track not being smooth, it meant mistakes came easily, however, he said that McLaren, know what they can do as they aim for points.
“A tricky day with all the bumps which are worse than last year, making it easy to snatch a front wheel and have a small lock-up. But after today, we have a direction to push in for tomorrow.“
The Briton ended up in eighteenth and fourteenth places during the two sessions. He indicated that it is very close with the pace of the midfield teams. Norris said that he feels McLaren and himself have work to do to improve and get points over the weekend.
“We’re there or thereabouts on pace, but it’s very close. So, it’s going to be more about putting the lap together and seeing how we get on, but we’ve got a bit of work to do.”
Sainz explained he had a different Friday in the two free practice sessions and talked about the use of the new Pirelli 2020 tyres; his impressions of the tyres wasn’t very positive as he finished the first session, where he used the new tyres in twelfth.
“It’s been a bit of a different Friday, having next season’s tyre compounds available. Unfortunately, my first impression of these tyres wasn’t very positive. I felt we were probably struggling a bit more this weekend to find the right balance in the car.“
The twenty-five-year-old revealed that the second practice session, worked better, as he finished in eighth. However, he suggested that the weekend would be extremely tight and that he expecting a tense fight for points positions in the top 10.
“It took us a few more runs to find a better compromise, but by the end of the day, we more or less managed to find a decent baseline. However, this weekend looks extremely tight and I expect a tense fight to get into the top 10. It looks challenging but we’ll make sure we work hard to maximise our options.”
