Drivers of… power units
Even in China, on the eve of the second weekend of this revolutionary F1 season, one of the main topics of discussion in the drivers’ press conferences concerns the merits and especially the flaws of the new technical regulations. By now, even the reigning world champion, Lando Norris, seems to be counted among the critics, although this time the McLaren Englishman was less explicit than what he had said in Australia regarding a type of car that is the “worst in history“. This time Lando ‘limited’ himself to explaining how these single-seaters are driven; or rather, how in reality you don’t drive the single-seaters but… the power units.
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“How do I feel with this car? It’s still very early to say – commented the McLaren #1 speaking with journalists present in China – and it’s rather different because you don’t drive the cars in the same way, you drive the power unit. You no longer drive the car to the limit. You don’t take a driver and tell him to drive the car as fast as possible: that’s not how it works. So it’s necessary to adopt a very different driving style. In practice, you forget everything you’ve done and start from scratch. I’m still trying to figure out how to drive the car and the power unit and how to put it all together“.
No more challenge at Pouhon
For this reason, certain ‘challenges’ that drivers faced on some iconic circuits – like the attempt to take the Pouhon corner at Spa flat out – will now (unfortunately) no longer have a reason to exist: “I think you can still make a difference as a driver by driving the power unit in the correct way, but not necessarily by driving the car in a much better way. I don’t think you go to Pouhon now to see who has the biggest balls. You won’t do that. You’ll only see who manages to lift the car at the right point and use the necessary amount of throttle without consuming power, without consuming the battery and things like that. So the driver can still make a difference by driving the power unit to the best of its capabilities – explained the Englishman – but it’s a completely different style from simply saying ‘let’s see who can maintain the maximum cornering speed at Pouhon’. It depends more on the needs of the power unit”.
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Regarding performance, finally, Norris is however confident that McLaren can try to partially close the gap that emerged in Melbourne with Mercedes: “I expect slightly closer gaps – said Norris – I think Melbourne was one of the most difficult tracks of the season from the point of view of lift and coast and other similar things. Here this aspect should be less significant, so we expect to be closer. But even if we were to go back to Melbourne now, I think we would still expect to have a smaller gap because of what we have understood and what we have been able to learn. At the same time, however, we also know that we must improve in all aspects, not just regarding the power unit. The car itself is decent, we are in a good starting position, but we still want to improve. So there are two aspects to address: improving the car is what will take a bit more time, but from the point of view of the power unit, we expect to be closer and more on par with Mercedes’ performance“.
