Lando Norris, McLaren, Circuit de Catalunya, 2020

Mercedes engines ‘one of hundreds of thousands’ of improvements McLaren needs – Norris

2020 F1 season

Posted on

| Written by

McLaren’s switch to Mercedes power units next year is just one of many improvements the team needs to make to compete for wins, says Lando Norris.

This year will be the team’s third and final season with Renault power before switching to the same engines as the world champions.

“It’s something to look forward to,” said Norris in an interview following today’s Australian Supercars All-Star series simrace.

“It’s what we believe will be an addition and something to help us step forward. But it’s not going to be everything. There’s a lot of time that we still need to find in the chassis itself and not just rely on the engine. So it’s a help and it’s a step forward but there’s a lot of things in Formula 1, so many things that are part of making a Formula 1 car to go quickly and this is just one of hundreds of thousands.

“So it’s good, it’s something we look forward to, something that we definitely think is going to be helping us. We have to get this season out of the way and work as hard as we can for now and then look forward to it next year.”

Norris said he expects the postponed 2020 season to be very tough on the drivers physically when it begins.

“Nothing has been actually confirmed yet, they are saying in a couple of months we’re going to be trying to get back into racing and Austria might be the first race. It’s still meant to be one race a weekend, but you may be at the same race track for a couple of weekends in a row.

“[We’re] going to be busy. I think as soon as we do get back racing they want to fit a lot of races in.

“So it’s going to be tough physically to jump back in a Formula 1 car, one of the fastest cars in the world, the most physical cars to drive. It’s not going be easy. But I’m very excited. I want to get back racing as soon as possible, as soon as it’s safe to do so and I can’t wait to get the opportunity.”

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2021 F1 season

Browse all 2021 F1 season articles

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

12 comments on “Mercedes engines ‘one of hundreds of thousands’ of improvements McLaren needs – Norris”

  1. So the title isn’t really what he said at all then.

    1. Not even close to the title

      1. The quote referenced in the headline is in paragraph four.

        1. Respectfully disagree. The quote clearly references the totality of concerns for an F1 car to go fast, which is distinct from Lando’s notion of McLaren’s particular areas of improvement. The first line of the article is a fair summation.

        2. He said that engines are one of hundreds of thousands of areas that, when done right, can make an F1 car go quickly. He did not say that McLaren specifically has hundreds of thousands of areas that are done wrong.

          That’s a huge difference!

        3. The quote may be correct but not the context.

    2. ? It’s a summary of the 4th paragraph.

  2. Not sure where to post, so it goes here. In all fairness to Williams they should get the 2020 WCC they really deserve it for sticking with F1. Also the WDC should go to Lewis Hamilton he would have won it anyway. I really don’t think there will be any races this year. As a species we should stick together for once and look after each other

    1. ColdFly (@)
      7th May 2020, 8:17

      As a species we should stick together

      We should practise social distancing.

  3. We will see if McLaren can make it fit in their design it will all depend on the “footprint’ size of the Mercedes compared with Renault. If Mercedes is a bit sleeker their design will be not comprimiced and we see a boost in performance.
    If they have to adjust the bodywork i don’t see then getting a improvement.

    1. That’s just the size you mention. I believe there will be quite a bit more to it. For example, weight distribution might demand for more changes, routing of exhaust, new fuel tank, airbox design etc etc etc… And that is just the hardware, there is a lot of software to familiarize with to control these machines.

Comments are closed.