McLaren's MCL39 Ticks All The Boxes For Lando Norris But One Key Area Remains To Be Addressed

McLaren driver Lando Norris has shared his assessment of the 2025 challenger, the MCL39, after the second day of pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit. The Briton stated that the car ticks all the right boxes, aligning with CEO Zak Brown's revelation that the team took a bold approach in its development. However, Norris highlighted one key area that requires improvement—an aspect that could potentially make the car a true all-rounder this season.

The Briton suggested that McLaren intends to focus on other areas of performance on the car but reckoned that it feels the same as where the team left it after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, a point he prefers. Norris stressed that the MCL39 is currently placed exactly where the team wanted it to be but clarified that he wasn't expecting a huge performance gain over other teams.

McLaren won the Constructors' Championship in 2024 after 26 years, but Norris missed out on his maiden title as Max Verstappen secured his fourth championship trophy at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. The 25-year-old driver admitted in the past that the goal this year would be to win both championships. With the 2025 challenger acing most areas, he said:

“It feels similar, which is a good start. That’s where we wanted to start.

“Nothing’s been majorly addressed. We’ve just tried to make the car quick all around and add more load, a simple way of looking at it honestly.

“We still want to try and focus on some areas more than others. We’ve struggled a bit more with the rear than we would have liked over yesterday and today. But it’s still early days.

“We’re not looking at absolute, outright performance and if we went into qualifying now, I’m sure we would change some things, but a lot of today and yesterday has been just ticking the boxes.”

Speaking of the much-needed improvement, he added:

“The fun bit will be this afternoon and tomorrow morning but I think if we want to improve anything at the minute, it’s still the rear of the car. The more you can improve the rear, the more everything just gets better.

“But the rest of it feels correct, and it feels like it’s in the same ballpark, and that’s what we want.

“I don’t think we’re expecting to be a big step ahead of anyone. We’re expecting to be tied alongside the guys to my right [Max Verstappen of Red Bull and Charles Leclerc of Ferrari], but if we’re just there fighting from the beginning, that’s our target, considering how the last few years have been.

“If we can just be there fighting from the off then we’ll be happy.”

Addressing the current pace of the car, he said:

“It’s just nice to be back in the car. Just driving again is always what we love to do, right? So it’s nice.

“Pace of the car? It’s just difficult to tell at the minute. We’re one second off Ferrari, if you look at just the timesheets, what everyone loves to do.

“So we’re just doing our own thing, learning about the cars. Plenty of things we still need to learn about and test.”