McLaren can start the sprint race from the front row after Oscar Piastri took pole position and Lando Norris took P2. It struck Michael Schmidt, F1 journalist Cars, motors and sports, However, the MCL38 produced quite a shower of sparks during each lap. The German seems to hint that McLaren may have set the car too low. Is that what slows McLaren down in Brazil on Saturday?
McLaren seemed in one league of their own to perform during the sprint qualifying at Interlagos, where the team left the competition far behind. Max Verstappen was an painful three-tenths short of Norris, and Charles Leclerc could not match the speed of the British racing team. Piastri was just faster than his teammate and will start the race from P1. “The Australian would have already taken the first place on the grid with his first attempt on the new tires, but after a two-minute wait in the pits, he took to the track again with the same set of tires and took pole,” Schmidt writes. his analysis at Auto, Motor und Sport.
‘Norris followed the same tactics, but was unable to improve his time and aborted his lap. It was important for him that World Cup opponents Leclerc and Verstappen start the sprint behind him and he can count on Piastri’s support,” the German thinks. ‘McLaren was the only team that deployed the strategy of driving faster on a used set of soft tires than on a new set. They relied on the increase in grip on the new asphalt, which shows the team’s self-confidence. The opponents were looking for explanations for the relatively large loss of time on a circuit with a lap of only 69 seconds.’
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Norris missed out on pole position, but was still very fast.
McLaren allowed the pit wall to enjoy showers of sparks
Verstappen stated afterwards that his car had overcome the bumps and kerbs again didn’t want to swallow. That problem has been happening all season. He had hoped that things would improve after the track was resurfaced, but he believes the problem has only gotten worse. “The RB20 has never performed well on bumpy tracks,” Schmidt writes. Team boss Horner added that he mainly lost time in turns 4, 10 and 12 under braking. At Ferrari, they hope to be able to turn the tide during the sprint. Mercedes, as often, blamed the poor balance sheet.’
What struck Schmidt was the shower of sparks that the MCL38 produced every time, which he saw much less with Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes. In 2023 in the United States, Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were disqualified afterwards because the wooden plank under the car was too worn. Schmidt warns McLaren against a repeat of this. “The competition can only explain McLaren’s fireworks show by thinking that they took too much risk when setting the ride height,” the German points out. ‘Horner suggested that McLaren may have raised the rear of the car less than the competition.’
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Has McLaren taken too much risk with the car’s ride height?
‘That now gives the rivals hope’
Last year, however, the teams were no longer allowed to drive the car between the sprint race and qualifying, but this year there are two Parc Fermé periods during sprint weekends. However, if McLaren has set the car too low for the sprint race, they will have to prevent the wooden plank from wearing too much during the race. “The shower of sparks that the McLarens produced in the qualifying rounds now gives their rivals hope,” writes Schmidt. “Maybe they took too much risk and have to slow down during the sprint to prevent the skid blocks from wearing too much.”
