Lando Norris says McLaren will not have to modify their car following the introduction of stricter tests on flexible wings for this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix.
The 25-year-old Briton said McLaren’s car already complied with the new tests when it raced at last weekend’s Australian Grand Prix, which Norris won.
Norris said: “We don’t have to change anything. Ours was fine. In fact, ours was too good and we are not pushing the limits enough.
“Already if this new (ruling) was in place last weekend, we’d also be fine. So it’s not directed at us. It’s directed at other teams, which probably means we need to push it even more.”
McLaren have been at the centre of discussions about wing flexing since last year, when Red Bull made a series of accusations against them.
Red Bull have continued to believe that McLaren are exploiting flexi-wings this season.
Tougher tests on rear wings had already been introduced for the Melbourne race.
And governing body the FIA has introduced tougher tests for China after analysing footage from cameras aimed at studying rear wing deformation in Melbourne.
The principle of flexible wings is that they bend at high speed to reduce drag, before snapping back into high-downforce position for corners.
This allows teams to have a car that is faster on the straights for a given level of downforce than would be the case and allows them to circumvent some of the compromises they might otherwise have to make between speed in the corners and speed on the straights. It can also help teams find better handling balance around the lap.
Norris’ victory in Australia put him in the lead of the championship for the first time in his career but he said he did not feel any extra pressure as a result.
“It makes no difference to me at the minute,” Norris said. “I’m not thinking about it.
“I had one good weekend. People need to calm down a little bit. I probably won’t even think of the championship until at least halfway through the year.”
Norris addressed the issue of McLaren briefly issuing orders for him and team-mate Oscar Piastri not to battle for position while they were negotiating backmarkers in the middle of the rain-affected Australia race.
“I didn’t really know about it and it was literally just for two or three laps as we went though the backmarkers,” he said.
“Risky conditions and we’d look like idiots if we both ended up off the track. And then he was free to race. We were free to race until that point, and then holding period for two or three laps, and then we we’re free to race again.
“It was stupid to risk anything going through backmarkers. And I was at a place where I was thinking I need to get these tyres to lap 54 or something. Oscar was pushing a bit more.”
Norris said that while he was “surprised” by the gap McLaren had to the field in qualifying in Melbourne, after he and Piastri had locked out the front row, he was still not happy with the car’s behaviour.
“What I want from a car, a good front at apex, is difficult to get,” he said. “I very rarely have what I need from the car from that prospect. But the car can still win races. I can still make the most out of the car if I don’t have what I want.
“There are just compromises. When the girls and guys try to talk you though it, if I do want more front mid-corner, we can only get that if were compromise high speed or low speed. It is so complicated.
“We want the best all-rounded car. But I think I have got a better understanding over the last few years. I’ve just said: ‘All right, give me the best car and will adapt to what I have even though it’s not what I feel I can get most out of’.
“But I have learned more out of my driving, and have fallen more into that philosophy of ‘give me the best car, not the car I want’.”
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