McLaren finally hit the track. He missed the first two days of the tests and did not ride anywhere even before the tests in Barcelona.
McLaren didn’t drive for the first time until Wednesday, but it hasn’t lost anything yet. Teams can leave for a maximum of three days.
Lando Norris drove a solid 76 laps. Although his best time was almost a second slower compared to Antonelli, lap times are not to be taken seriously.
“It was good to be back,” Norris said. “It was nice to see a number one on my car. It’s pretty cool, still so surreal, so it feels good.”
“I’ve seen it before on the timers and it’s still incredible. It’s a crazy sight, especially when you see it now. It’s the first time I’ve seen it on the tracksuit, on the car, on the timing screens, all this stuff… and it looks good.”
“The whole situation of being the champion is still a surreal feeling. But it doesn’t change anything, other than the fact that I’m on top of the leaderboard before we even go out because I’m the lowest number.”
“We’re under pressure now, but at the same time it’s just great. It’s great for the mechanics, for all of us, to have that feeling and that honor, but otherwise nothing changes. There’s still a lot of hard work ahead of us and a lot of laps to go, but it’s nice to know I’ve got the number there.”
“Our first day at the track, the first time everyone sees the car in one piece – it literally wasn’t built until this morning,” he said. “It’s an incredible thing.”
“So it’s nice to see how it all came together, to see the hard work that everyone put into building that car. Then I get to go and have fun in it and drive it, which turns out to be a decent day.”
“Today was really about understanding the whole car for the first time, understanding how it works, going through the manual for everything.”
“It was a productive day, but it was mostly about figuring things out, making sure everything was working as it should and getting the first picture of the whole thing. So a good day for me, just to be behind the wheel again, and a good day for the engineers and mechanics to get their first look at this year’s rules in action.”
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