For the third time this Formula 1 season, Lando Norris will start from pole position on Sunday, but the McLaren driver has never won since then. Norris had already taken the best starting position in Barcelona and Budapest – and that was on tracks where pole position is very important, but there he lost first place after the first corner.
Red Bull is also hoping for this weakness in Zandvoort: “If Norris is not in the lead, then it will be more difficult for him,” says Red Bull’s motorsport consultant Helmut Marko. “He knows that Max is strong. It will certainly be an interesting first corner,” he says, looking ahead.
Before the weekend, Norris himself had identified the starts and the first lap as his weaknesses so far this year. A day later, however, team boss Andrea Stella stood behind him and said that the Englishman was not always solely responsible for this – some of it was also down to the team.
“We definitely lost some performance in some races,” Stella said after qualifying about this year’s starts. “So there are a few things we had to adjust.”
Optimizing a start is a constant process in which you constantly check what you have done so far – whether it is during start exercises or real starts. “It is a combination of the driver’s execution, but also what the engineers provide in terms of tire preparation, clutch adjustment or throttle control,” explains the team boss.
“So a lot of it comes from teamwork, and that teamwork comes from constant improvement,” Stella said. “It’s not like we say, ‘Oh, we have good attitudes, a good starting position, that’s it.’ You constantly look at it and try to improve.”
Second start phase in Hungary the problem
In Norris’ case, however, the second phase of the start sometimes seemed to be the problem. The Briton got off the line well, but then lost ground. Stella is reminded of the lost start from pole in Hungary.
“He had too much wheelspin, which meant that his gear shifting wasn’t optimal and he was slow and lost momentum,” he recalls. “He could have controlled the wheelspin better, but our settings were probably not the best for those conditions. And that’s why I said it was a combination of driver and team.”
“In Hungary and Spain, there was also the fact that there is a long straight with slipstream up to Turn 1. Russell benefited from the slipstream in Barcelona, so there are several factors,” says Stella, but at least in Zandvoort, she does not see this point as a major factor because the path to Turn 1 is not that long.
“But we still need a good start, a good run-up phase and good gear changes – with both drivers.”
First round: Stella sees no problem with Norris
But Norris’ first lap wasn’t always perfect either. Most recently in Belgium before the summer break, the World Championship runner-up lost ground when he went a little too wide in the first corner.
Stella has watched the starts and witnessed some unfortunate scenes: “If you look at Lando’s onboard in Hungary, he is performing a miracle by trying not to hit Oscar (Piastri) and Max (Verstappen). I don’t think he could have done better without risking a serious collision.”
“And it happened in a similar way in Barcelona,” says the team boss. “And sometimes you just have to take a little risk away because the race will go your way later.”
The problem in Barcelona, however, was that he had difficulty getting past Russell in front of him, meaning Verstappen already had a lead. “So personally, I couldn’t find much room for improvement,” says Stella.
“I prefer to stay in the race and see if we can make up positions later on, if it is otherwise a situation where pushing harder might mean being eliminated on lap one,” said the team boss. “If you have that pace, then you want to finish.”
Source: www.sport.de
