Lando Norris on Canada and Silverstone’s expectations

In an op-ed for the Telegraph, McLaren driver Lando Norris summed up the Canadian lap and talked about preparing for his home Grand Prix at Silverstone…

Lando Norris: “One of the strange things about the 2022 season is the drastic change in the balance of power from track to track. To some extent this was to be expected as the teams adapt to the new technical regulations. But I’ve never seen anything like it in my career.

The good news is that things change quickly. And if the weekend in Montreal proved to be difficult for us, there is no reason to believe that we will not perform better at Silverstone. Suffice it to recall 15th place in the first race of the season in Bahrain, then fifth in Australia and the podium in Imola. Yes, we were not that fast in Baku and Canada, but we know the reason and are working to correct the situation.

We went wrong in Montreal. During qualifying there were problems with the power plant and I was unable to participate in the second session, although I was sure that the changeable weather would give us a chance to come back. Given the low number of overtakes in Sunday’s race, every place on the grid was important.

If everything went perfectly on Saturday and Sunday we could earn points, but every rider will tell you that. The truth is that in Canada we had no speed. My teammate Daniel Ricciardo also didn’t score and finished in 11th place. But we will draw conclusions.

We have some new products for Silverstone. Looking forward to the start of the weekend on the home track. The atmosphere of this weekend is unique. You can feel the positive energy from the marshals at the entrance when you arrive at the track in the morning, from fans with British flags or McLaren colours. You feed on this support. It is of great importance.

We will do our best to outperform Canada. We will update the car a little bit, the tarmac is very different there than in Montreal, it will be interesting to see if the new technical guidance of the FIA ​​regarding the swing goes into effect. There was a lot of talk about her over the Canadian weekend, but I don’t have a definitive opinion.

Our car has less wobble, so we didn’t push for change. But safety must come first. If there is a real danger that riders will experience long-term health effects or that they will lose focus and have an accident, then something has to be done.

The two strongest teams are clearly the best at interpreting the rules, I can see why they object to any changes during the season.

At the same time, because I haven’t experienced a build-up like other racers, I don’t want to criticize anyone. Safety should come first, and while it doesn’t affect me right now, these rules are designed for the long term. I would like the riders to support each other in such situations. And if in a few years a similar or different problem threatens my health, I like to believe that my colleagues will support me.

It is imperative that these changes play against no one. It would have been better to keep them after the end of the season, but now they will inevitably affect some more than others.

We designed our car based on a certain philosophy, any change can work in our favor or against us, but we’ll see. There are much smarter people than me who need to figure this out.

In the meantime, I’m just looking forward to returning to the UK and competing in our home race. We will do our best to give the British fans something to celebrate this weekend.”