Lando Norris’s starting difficulties: Is it the driver or the car at McLaren that is to blame when a “weak spot” appears? | F1 News

Lando Norris has had a memorable season so far in 2024, scoring his first wins in Formula 1 and putting his team in the fight for the Constructors’ Championship. However, there is one cause for concern for his team – race starts.

In addition to his victories at the Miami and Dutch GPs, Norris had to endure a series of “what ifs”, many of which were due to his poor starts, especially from pole position.

He lost to Lewis Hamilton in the China Sprint due to lights outages, to Max Verstappen and George Russell in the Spanish GP, to Oscar Piastri in the Hungarian GP and most recently in Zandvoort, despite catching up, to Verstappen again, who took the win.

Norris, who is 70 points behind Verstappen in the championship ahead of this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix, said he had been working on his weaknesses during Formula 1’s summer break, including his starts, and Zandvoort was a chance to prove his efforts had paid off.

However, he was easily overtaken by Verstappen at the start, so there will still be doubts about his future starts, which Sky Sports F1Anthony Davidson believes this is a “weak point” for McLaren.

“It’s obvious that different teams approach the starts differently,” Davidson said.

“When I drove with Lando on board, it looked like he had the throttle position in the right place (at Zandvoort). At the first start, the start seemed OK, which means the driver’s approach was OK in terms of those two factors.

“But then it seemed to go wrong when he went into second gear and you started to give it more throttle. Of course, by that point you had completely let go of the clutch. So I think it’s somewhere in that area where it keeps going wrong for McLaren and Lando.”

“But in this particular race, I would say, if anything, he had a slightly better start than Piastri.

“I think it’s difficult for the teams in this race to really perfect the start because the conditions are so different and you don’t have enough time to decide what to do with all the software behind the scenes.”

“But other than that, it seems to be a bit of a weak point for McLaren. And if you want to fight for the championship with a team like Red Bull by the end of the year, you have to make damn sure you perfect as many things as possible.”

“They have great pit stops, great speed, great reliability, two great drivers, ticked a lot of boxes.”

“The start is what always raises eyebrows, not just among us spectators, but probably also among the team. And if they can do that, then they will consolidate.”

“The incredible performance that the team achieved in qualifying and managed to overtake Max Verstappen in the Red Bull is an incredible achievement. You can’t afford to keep throwing that performance away.”

Davidson: The battle is between McLaren and Red Bull

With nine events still to go, McLaren is only 30 points behind Red Bull in the constructors’ championship this season.

With Verstappen not winning his last five races in 2024 and teams like Mercedes doing well on certain tracks, the rest of the season is uncertain. McLaren is considered the favorite to win the constructors’ championship.

“I completely agree with McLaren. They have the best car at the moment. That is very clear to see,” added Davidson.

“And yes, there will be ups and downs on different race tracks. Who knows, maybe Ferrari will be the fastest car in Singapore and on similar race tracks or in Mexico.”

“It’s exciting because Red Bull aren’t running away again like they have in the last few seasons.

“And it’s not just one team that can challenge them every now and then. Mercedes can dominate a race, as we saw at Silverstone and how fast they were at Spa.”

“It’s so exciting. I’ve never experienced an F1 season where there have been so many ups and downs in terms of the performance of the different cars.”

“The McLaren seems to be the most inoffensive. You can take it anywhere. It will always be there or nearby. But in Spa it was not as brilliant as in Budapest or Zandvoort.”

“What I love about this season is that everything is so uncertain.

“It’s a great battle between McLaren and Red Bull. Red Bull is clearly not in the same position as last year. And there are still tracks like Singapore to come, where they already had a hard enough time last year with their dominant car.

“So, wow, I can’t imagine what the rest of this season will bring.”

Italian GP live schedule from Sky Sports F1

Thursday, August 29
2:00 p.m.: Driver press conference

Friday, August 30
8.30 a.m.: F3 training
9.55 a.m.: F2 training
12.00: 1st practice for the Italian GP (starts at 00.30)
13:55: F3 qualification
14:50: F2 qualification
15:45: Second practice for the Italian GP (session starts at 16:00)
5.15pm: The F1 show

Saturday, August 31
8.25am: F3 Sprint
11.15am: Third practice session for the Italian GP (session starts at 11.30am)
13.10: F2 Sprint
14:15: Preparation for qualifying for the Italian GP
15.00: QUALIFYING GP ITALIA*
5pm: Ted’s qualification notebook

Sunday, September 1st
07:30: F3 main race
9.00 a.m.: F2 main race
11.00 a.m.: Porsche Supercup
12:30: Grand Prix Sunday: Preparation for the Italian GP
14:00: Italian Grand Prix
16:00: Checkered flag: Reactions to the Italian GP
5pm: Ted’s Notebook

*also live on Sky Sports Main Event

The 2024 Formula 1 season resumes this weekend with the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream every F1 race and more with a NOW Sports Month membership. No contract, cancel anytime