Lando Norris hits back at McLaren F1 loophole allegations amid Las ...

Lando Norris has denied that McLaren’s struggles at the Las Vegas Grand Prix are related to claims that the team had been exploiting loopholes in Formula 1 in 2024.

McLaren endured an underwhelming qualifying at the Las Vegas Strip Circuit as Norris wound up in sixth place, almost seven-tenths behind polesitter George Russell.

With Oscar Piastri two spots back in eighth place, McLaren took its lowest starting positions on the grid since becoming the recognised benchmark team from Miami.

The Woking-based squad’s pace has been scrutinised in recent times amid allegations that it is among the teams that have been using water vapour to cool the tyres.

Norris, though, voiced his displeasure with those accusations as he quipped that it might have provided the reason behind McLaren’s sudden drop in competitiveness.

“I know, it’s incredible. Especially because we have the fastest car by a mile, right?” Norris remarked to media including Motorsport Week.

“Yeah, weird. Maybe it’s the water in the tyres or something.”

McLaren was caught up in another technical saga earlier this term when the team’s rear wing being spotted using a ‘mini DRS’ mechanism forced it to make revisions.

When that was put to him, Norris responded: “Yeah, all of this stuff, you know. They’re right about everything.”

Norris has explained that McLaren has continued to remain exposed to experiencing issues on low-grip tracks despite the advances that it has made with the MCL38.

“No, it’s just this very low grip,” he continued. “It just doesn’t suit us. It doesn’t suit our characteristic of car.

“We have to drive the car on the perfect limit if we want to be quick.

“It takes a lot, I think, to get everything out of our car normally. When we do, we can be quick. Here it’s just too difficult to get everything out of the car.

“Every lap there’s another issue or a different issue and it was just too much of a challenge. It’s been a challenge the last two days.

“Nothing’s changed from yesterday. It’s just others have turned up and gone lower fuel and things like that.

“Maybe it wasn’t our best Q3. I made a couple of small mistakes, but mistakes which were just very difficult to avoid.

“And it was just too difficult to put a clean lap in because I’m trying to go quicker, but at the same time I’m trying to not make any mistake.

“And a mistake around here can easily be one-tenth, two-tenths gone. Just too much of a challenge for us out there.”

The Briton has admitted that McLaren was unable to match the pace of its closest rivals no matter the approach the drivers took to preparing the tyres for a push lap.

“I did the warm-up, push and no magic came our way,” he said. “So, I don’t know, I don’t think there was maybe a correct one, but I think that wasn’t our issue today.

“It was more just our car balance and how we have to drive our car. It’s just, it makes it too difficult.

“That’s our issue, it’s not tyres, it’s not because they’re too hot or too cold or all of this nonsense. Or the water. It’s just our car doesn’t suit these conditions.”

Asked whether McLaren’s lacklustre speed has come as a surprise to him, Norris replied: “I mean, we’ll be optimistic and we’ll look ahead to what we can achieve.

“Yeah, I don’t expect anything magical for sure.”

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