Norris: We are more confident in our abilities than in Las Vegas

The McLaren drivers had a good Friday practice in Abu Dhabi as the track suits the MCL60 car much better, although Lando Norris was not entirely happy with how the final Friday of the season went for him.

Lando Norris (2nd): “The result is normal, although the session was obviously somewhat chaotic. Because of this I didn’t do more than five fast laps today – I wish Friday practice had gone differently. What I mean is that in the second session I tried to make up for the missed first training, but I only lost more.

But I felt comfortable behind the wheel almost immediately, which is always important when you’ve missed the first practice session, and the car made a good impression. However, there are still a number of aspects that still need to be worked on.

Based on the results of one session I can say that the car can run a good pace, and I am happy, but the results are very tight, so we will see how tomorrow’s qualifying goes. One or two tenths and you can move five or six positions in any direction. So in the evening we will have to work on the nuances, because tomorrow a lot will depend on the little things.

But we are in a good position and definitely more confident in our abilities than in Las Vegas and some other circuits. Although I have not actually completed a single lap in the long series, we are a bit behind in that regard. But I think I’ll have time to catch up tomorrow.”

Oscar Piastri (10th): “Of course it was nice to return to the track where I had already ridden, although today’s training did not go smoothly for everyone because the second session was interrupted more than once.

Of course we still have some work to do, but it looks like the car is quite competitive. I am confident that I will be able to show good results, but for this I have to correct a number of mistakes.

The third training will take place under different circumstances and we will have to evaluate the information we receive there very critically. But I think the car has a pretty good balance, except that it still needs some fine tuning and driving style adjustments. Anyway, tomorrow our minimum task is to qualify for the final.

I think Lando has shown that the car can set a good pace, and if I can put everything together, I’ll be around his level as well. While we may not have seen everything Red Bull is capable of…”

Pato O’Ward (15th in first session): “Great day! I always say that every day can be considered successful if you get the chance to drive a Formula 1 car. I have tried to make the most of this and help the team working with Lando’s car as much as possible. Everything went according to plan, I’m already looking forward to getting behind the wheel again on Tuesday and then I’ll get the most out of the car! And at the same time I investigate the limits of the possibilities of this technology.

I had a lot of fun with it and compared to my previous experiences I can say that the MCL60 has much less vertical runout at high speeds. When you try to push these cars to their limits, it’s a very fine line, and if you cross it, problems can arise.

We saw that with the example of Carlos Sainz, who crashed his Ferrari, but during the first training I almost ended up in a similar situation. I simply did not notice the same bump on the highway and bumped into it, and at that time we were experimenting, trying to find the optimal ground clearance. The car can immediately go out of control.

In general, I had this approach for this session: the speed should be increased gradually, without trying heroically, to avoid problems. And from what I could tell, the team was very satisfied with my work. I hope I get the chance to drive McLaren cars again next year. Today I was given certain tasks and everything went fine. So now it will be interesting to see what the team can achieve this weekend.”