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McLaren CEO Zak Brown stated that Lando Norris has significantly more pace than demonstrated during practice for the United States Grand Prix, where the British driver made an error on his flying lap.
Norris could only manage seventh in the second free practice session at the Circuit of the Americas, 1.082 seconds adrift of pace-setter Charles Leclerc, with Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson even managing to split the pack ahead of him in sixth.
On his quickest lap, Norris suffered a mishap in the final sector that erased his impressive speed through the opening two splits, preventing him from posting a much more representative benchmark ahead of qualifying.
Reviewing the session, Brown emphasized that a tidy run would have put the MCL40 right at the sharp end:
"I think Lando is definitely much quicker than the timesheet shows," Brown told Sky Sports F1. "He couldn't hook up the third sector, but his first two sectors were very strong. Our genuine pace is significantly higher than what we saw, and we are right in the mix with Ferrari and Mercedes."
McLaren Chief Technical Officer and Chief Designer Rob Marshall also expressed confidence in the car's potential.
"We set a fastest sector in FP2, but the lap simply went unfinished," Marshall remarked. "The pace was fully competitive right up until the mistake. We are looking ahead and certainly have grounds for optimism."
McLaren's assessment of new parts
Regarding the technical upgrades McLaren brought to Austin, Marshall clarified that while the components are performing as expected, they were not originally planned for use during the race itself.
"We are very pleased with the results," he said. "We introduced a few elements—I wouldn't call it a major upgrade, but rather small details for fine-tuning. However, they are having a very positive effect and delivering a genuine, measurable gain that shows up in the lap times."
"These were test items that we originally hadn't planned to run in race trim. However, some of the brake duct components delivered aerodynamic benefits, better airflow management around the wheels, and weight savings. We certainly feel the additions delivered the desired outcome," Marshall concluded.
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