McLaren does not share Lando Norris’s assessment that he needs a “big reset” if he is going to get fully on top of his 2025 Formula 1 car.

Norris was despondent after qualifying in Bahrain when, having appeared to have had a car that was quick enough to fight for pole position, he ended up sixth on the grid after losing more than four tenths of a second to team-mate Oscar Piastri.

Speaking to the media including The Race’s Samarth Kanal afterwards, Norris said: “I’ve been off it all weekend; don’t know why. Just clueless on track at the minute. I don’t know; I just need a big reset, that’s all.”

Norris is well known for being very self-critical about his performances, but his tone in Bahrain suggested that there could perhaps be something more fundamental at play in his driving style not suiting his MCL39 car.

However, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has played down such an idea, and has instead pointed to the issue being specifically related to how Norris and the team approach the final qualifying segment.

“It’s more a phase,” explained Stella, when asked by The Race what is the issue that Norris is battling.

“I think when it comes to Q3, putting together the lap that hasn’t worked very well recently. But this is a short phase.

“We are talking about the driver that has led the journey of McLaren to the front, together with Oscar, and has delivered us the world championship after 26 years.

“It’s just now, in this temporary phase in which, while pushing the car to the limit, there’s a few things that don’t go exactly as he expects.

“When you go for the extra one-tenth of a second in Q3, this becomes more visible. We understand what it is. 

“It will just require a bit of adaptation from Lando himself and some adaptations from the team, but I think the understanding is good, and we are very optimistic that this will be resolved.”

Clues to what Norris is struggling with

Analysis of Norris’s final Q3 lap has offered some pointers about where a potential deficit to Piastri in these conditions is coming from and what adaptations may be needed.

While Norris had attacked the start of the lap much better on the run down to Turn 1 – even being ahead at the braking zone – he battled some understeer into the opening corner.

This could be a consequence of him having not got his front tyre temperatures warm enough, especially as track conditions cooled over the course of the session.

Perhaps sensing that he was bleeding time, Norris was aggressive on the way out of the opening corner sequences – triggering some oversteer.

This compromised his throttle application on the exit of Turn 2 – and ultimately cost him 0.3 seconds because of the time lost on the run up to Turn 4.

Norris suffered another oversteer moment in Turn 6, where he had to lift more than Piastri – which suggests that he was battling some rear instability.

It is not clear if this was general set-up or was simply as a consequence of his tyre temperatures and an offset between fronts that had started too cool and rears that were quickly overheating because of his Turn 2 wobble.

Stella’s suggestion that tweaks are needed to both Norris’s driving approach and the approach from the team may well be related to tyre management and the complexities involved in making adaptations as the track cools throughout the qualifying segments.

There are indications that the McLaren is not as good as some other cars, like the Mercedes, in getting front tyre temperatures up to speed quickly at the start of a qualifying lap – and this would be exacerbated if track conditions have also cooled off.

In the final Q3 runs, we can see that Mercedes driver George Russell, despite running lower downforce levels than McLaren, is a match through the opening corners compared to Piastri before he begins losing time from Turn 7.

While Norris is blaming himself for what is going on, Stella says it would be wrong to suggest that the responsibility for getting on top of these Q3 issues is entirely down to the driver.

“We know that there’s a few things we can do better to make Lando more comfortable in the car,” he said.

“My approach is first of all to look in the mirror. The team should look in the mirror and say, ‘What should we do better to make Lando more comfortable and put him in condition to use his incredible talent?'”