McLaren‘s smooth build up to the 2022 Formula 1 season has hit its first big hurdle, with the team suffering from brake issues that Lando Norris said will not be easy to fix.
The opening day of the final pre-season test in Bahrain was far from smooth sailing for McLaren, with Daniel Ricciardo forced to pull out of driving duties due to illness.
He was replaced by Norris, but the British driver could only manage 50 laps for the day, less than half the distance covered by the leading teams.
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Norris’ time – sixth fastest of the 15 drivers – was competitive, but of more concern will be brake issues that hampered the McLaren through the day.
Reports indicate Norris frequently locked up and ran wide through the heavy braking zones at Turn 1 and Turn 10.
“We just had problems with the brakes today, simple as that,” Norris said.
“The exact problems I’m not too sure, but just temperatures and stuff. It didn’t allow us to do long runs. Things we are trying to fix the next few days, it’s not going to be an easy fix, so we’ll see what we can do.”
Norris conceded that the problem could hamper the team through the rest of the test.
“It wasn’t obviously something we could just fix today, it’s not something that easy to fix. We’re going to make compromises and things here and there to allow us to do more running for sure,” he explained.
“The guys are already working on that. I’m not too sure just yet, I was just driving the car and getting to know everything else. But just a lot of work to do so we’ll see.”
Asked whether or not Ricciardo would be in the car on day two of the three day test, Norris said that was still up in the air.
“He’s still not feeling well, but he’s resting,” he said.
“He’s sleeping and we’ll see if he’s OK tomorrow.”
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