Norris: No quick fix to McLaren’s slow-speed struggles
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Lando Norris says there will be no quick solution to McLaren’s struggles through slow-speed corners with its 2019 Formula 1 car, but remains hopeful of the team’s chances in the upcoming races.McLaren currently leads the fight for fourth place in the constructors’ championship after making a strong start to the season, sitting 21 points clear of nearest midfield rival Renault.While both Norris and teammate Carlos Sainz have impressed with their recent run of form, the team’s biggest losses compared to Renault have come in slow-speed corners.This weekend’s German Grand Prix and next week’s race in Hungary both take place on circuits featuring more slow-speed turns – particularly at the Hungaroring – that Norris conceded remained McLaren’s weak spot.“The slow speed is our biggest weakness at the moment. It’s something that we need to work on, but it’s not as easy as it looks,” Norris said.“It’s easy just to change things, but it’s a weakness of this car and that’s what we need to focus on, but to try and keep the high-speed and medium-speed [strength] – though still need to improve there because compared to the top teams we’re still a long way off.“But compared to the teams we’re realistically racing against, we have strengths and weaknesses, but it’s the weaknesses we need to work on.“It’s not something we can change over a weekend. It’s not like something we can just optimise the speed of the car for the slow-speed and sacrifice the high-speed.“We can’t gain as much as we’re losing at the moment. It’s part of the longer-term project, and hopefully something we can improve over the winter.”Asked if he was concerned about two tough races coming up, Norris said he did not think the weakness would totally cripple McLaren.”There’s a good amount of high-speed and medium-speed as well. It’s not like because there’s a little bit of low-speed we’re going to bed terrible,” Norris said.“Paul Ricard we were very good, Australia too – Turn 3 is slow speed, Turn 4 is slow speed – so it’s not just because there’s slow speed we’re going to be bad.”
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