Awakening in SQ3 but the new wing doesn’t work
Protagonists when it mattered most. After a tough Friday, in which they seemed behind not only the Mercedes but also the Ferraris, the two McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri raised their heads at the decisive moment of the Sprint Qualifying. In SQ3, in fact, the Englishman and the Australian managed to grab the second row, relegating the two red cars of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc to third. This was probably the best possible result for the papaya team, given that the updates brought by Mercedes seem to have once again made the W17 unreachable.
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The downside, however, for the Woking team, is the at least temporary rejection of the new front wing brought this weekend to Montreal: “After FP1 we went back to the old front wing configuration – admitted technical director Neil Houldey – during the session we found that the front wing did not offer the performance we expected and, ultimately, we decided to use the previous configuration, which gave the drivers more confidence and allowed them to achieve better performance”.
The words of Norris and Piastri
“Considering how the morning went, third place is a great result and represents a nice turnaround – commented world champion Lando Norris – we feared being off pace and I didn’t have much confidence in the car, but we made some changes that allowed us to make a clear step forward. For the Sprint Qualifying we went back to the front wing with the previous specifications, which gave me a bit more confidence. The lap was decent, I could have pushed a bit more, but the gap to the leaders wasn’t that big, which is encouraging. I’m proud of the team for reacting quickly and doing a great job in difficult conditions – added the English champion – the upgrade package is working well, some parts, mainly the front wing, still need more time and we might reintroduce them later. That said, the rest of the car worked well and, for the first time this weekend, I felt really confident in SQ3 with the soft tires. It’s a good step forward and we will continue to refine from here on”.
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Similar observations from Oscar Piastri, who recorded the fourth fastest time just 19 thousandths behind Norris: “I’m relatively satisfied – said the Australian at the end of the session – we made the most of our opportunities, especially after a rather chaotic first practice session, with delays and red flags that prevented us from dedicating all the time we wanted to data analysis. The Mercedes seem competitive with their new package, so we still have work to do to improve performance and close the gap. Thanks to the team for the work done in preparing the new parts for Canada. It was an important package to fine-tune and we still have work to do on the front wing: in the end we raced with the previous one in the Sprint qualifying because we felt more comfortable with it. Let’s see what we can do in the Sprint and what we can optimize ahead of the Grand Prix qualifying“.
