McLaren’s Strong Season Faces Challenges at Las Vegas Grand Prix

The last couple of years have been quite good for McLaren. By the end of the 2023 season, the team made a significant leap in the F1 Constructors’ Championship standings, wrapping up in fourth place. They had even clinched the constructors’ championship in the season’s final race last year. This season, however, McLaren not only finished the constructors’ championship with six races still to go but also put their drivers in contention. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are now vying for the drivers’ championship.

But the recent Grand Prix appeared to be a rough patch for the team.

The Las Vegas Grand Prix posed a real struggle for McLaren. It brought back memories of the first race in 2023 when Norris had a crash early on, and Piastri ended up in a 10th-place finish as McLaren was working to rise in the ranks. Last year, they came to Las Vegas hoping to catch up with Max Verstappen. Yet, despite leading the Drivers’ Championship, the McLaren drivers landed in 6th and 7th, ending any hopes for a British Drivers’ Championship title.

Even with a promising run, Norris expressed some concerns on Wednesday night about the Las Vegas circuit, suggesting it might be “trickier” than recent competitions, especially after winning the Mexico City Grand Prix and both the F1 sprint and the main event at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

“This was definitely the toughest race of the year in the last two years,” Norris said during the FIA press conference. “So my expectations aren’t quite at the level they were for Mexico or Brazil, where we had really strong results.”

“We’ve had a great year, though. There’s been improvement in areas where we’ve struggled before. So, sure, we’re more confident than usual but maybe not as confident as during the last few races. It’s hard to say. Expectations are still high. I’m here to win, and I’d love to replicate our recent successes, yet I think it’s definitely going to be trickier than in previous years.”

Nonetheless, Norris shared some insights from last year’s race that help bolster his confidence heading into this weekend.

“Well, we were so far behind last time that we ended up trying everything possible,” he responded to a question from David Croft. “Honestly, it pushed us to put in a ton of effort. It’s probably easy to see we struggled consistently. So, I ended up experimenting quite a bit—trying different driving styles and approaches. It’s tough when your car changes week to week, making it tricky to find what works best. It took me until the end of the race to land on something that felt a bit better.”

“Looking at the race data now, my final stint closely aligned with Ferrari, Red Bull, and Mercedes,” he added.

Norris also reflected on Hamilton’s performance from last year, saying, “I think it’s Lewis. His last stint was impressive. It definitely felt more raceable, even if we are still quite a distance from Mercedes. Perhaps we learned from that situation.”

Hamilton secured second place in last year’s Las Vegas Grand Prix using a two-stop strategy—starting on medium tires and switching to two sets of hard tires. Norris had a similar plan but didn’t use soft tires for the final stint.

When comparing their telemetry data, it’s apparent Hamilton was quicker in the first segment, but Norris matched Hamilton’s impressive final stint, logging several laps even faster than him.

For instance, on lap 44, Hamilton clocked a time of 1:35.662, while Norris was just ahead with 1:35.527. On lap 42, Norris again bested Hamilton, recording a 1:35.601 compared to Hamilton’s 1:35.884.

But last year, it wasn’t sufficient for Norris.

The question remains: will the lessons from that challenging final stint provide enough insight for this weekend’s race?

“This doesn’t guarantee a standout year ahead, but it certainly gives us a direction,” Norris concluded.