Lando Norris says McLaren’s car does not suit his strengths as he plays down Hungarian GP expectations

Lando Norris explains why McLaren’s car doesn’t suit his driving abilities; Norris does not expect McLaren to repeat Silverstone’s performance at the Hungarian GP; Watch the Hungarian GP live on Sky Sports F1; F1 Juniors Sunday live on Sky Showcase and Sky Sports Mix

Lando Norris says McLaren’s car is “far from the car I want to be able to drive” as he explains how the MCL60 does not live up to its strengths despite its recent upgrades.

McLaren performed brilliantly in the last two Grands Prix at Austria and Silverstone after introducing major updates to their car, with Norris finishing fourth at the Styrian Hills, before beating Lewis Hamilton to finish second in his home race and teammate Oscar Piastre fourth.

Despite those exceptional results, Norris revealed that the upgrade package did not improve the MCL60’s handling, leaving it to drive in a compromised manner.

“You have to drive it exactly one way but it’s also the way I don’t want to drive or like to drive,” Norris told the Hungaroring.

“I don’t like driving the car the way I have to drive now. It seems to me that it is not in my strength at all.

“I want to be able to carry minimum speed and you turn a corner and the last thing I can do now in the world is you turn a corner.

“I have to corner more than ever and I’ve never been the biggest fan of doing that and I don’t like it that much.

“Basically the car just likes to go straight, and it doesn’t go very fast in a straight line.

“But we’re very good at straight-line braking, which is why we’re sometimes so quick in the wet. I wouldn’t say that in general we’re quick in the wet, we’re quick in the wet when braking like in Monaco is a big key – it raises tire temperature, builds confidence – that’s when we’re quick but when it’s wet we’re not really fast in the corners.

“There are certain things that allow us to be competitive. Just to be able to have the leeway to do different lines and drive in different ways. If the wind changes, if the conditions change, there’s a different fuel load, tire wear then we still always have to drive in a specific way and it’s not what I currently enjoy, it’s what I have to adapt to.

“Even last year, it still changes every year, you have to adapt a lot as a driver and that’s far from the car I want to be able to drive.”

Norris expects more difficult weekend in Hungary

McLaren stunned the paddock at Silverstone as they were the second fastest team in qualifying, Norris and Piastri were second and third on the grid and then pulled away from the rear before the safety car timed out, missing out on Piastri’s potential first F1 podium finish.

But the high-speed flowing nature of the Northamptonshire track is very different to the slower-paced corners of the Hungaroring this weekend and Norris doubts McLaren will be able to repeat the performance of two weeks ago.

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Sky F1’s Anthony Davidson talks about the challenges of the Hungaroring track ahead of this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix

“It doesn’t matter what the approach is, we’re not very good at slow [corners],” Norris said.

“I think if you focus solely on the slow pace we are not terrible, if you look at Monaco we are generally not too bad in Monaco.

“I think it’s a huge win for us by doing well in high speeds compared to focusing so much on low speeds when you have to start making compromises.

“I think we’re not bad here, if you look at last year it wasn’t a bad weekend for us, with the car we struggled with a lot at the start of the season. I still want to be optimistic but I doubt it’s going to be as good as Silverstone because there’s no high pace [corners],

“I think there will still be some tracks that will be bad for us, I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Bad Track for us…I think we’ll have big tests for how bad it’s going to be in some of the other tracks to come. I think it will be a good test mainly because we don’t have any high speed.

“It will be a better test of where we stand. I think the last two tracks put us better than where we stood over the long term of the whole season.”

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Look back at some of the most dramatic moments from the past few years at the Hungarian Grand Prix

Sky Sports F1 live Hungarian GP schedule

Friday 21 July
8:55 am: F3 Practice
10 am: F2 practice
12 Noon: Hungarian GP Practice One (Session starts 12:30 PM)
2 pm: F3 Qualifying
2:45 PM: F2 Qualifying
3:40 PM: Hungarian GP Practice Two (Session starts at 4 PM)
5:15 pm: The F1 Show

Saturday 22 July
8:45 am: F3 Sprint
11:15 AM: Hungarian GP Practice Three (Session starts 11:30 AM)
1:10 PM: F2 Sprint
2:15 PM: Hungarian GP Qualifying Build-up (Sky Showcase)
3:00 PM: Hungarian GP Qualifying (Sky Showcase)
5 p.m.: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook

Sunday 23 July
7:20 am: F3 Feature Race
9am: F2 Feature Race
11 am: Porsche Supercup
12:30 PM: Grand Prix Sunday – Hungarian GP Build-up
1:30 PM: F1 Juniors: Hungarian Grand Prix (Sky Sports Mix and Sky Showcase)
2 pm: Hungarian Grand Prix
4pm: Checkered flag: British GP reaction
5 p.m.: Ted’s Notebook

The return of Daniel Ricciardo and the first F1 Juniors title broadcast of the Hungarian Grand Prix! Catch all the action live on Sky Sports F1 from 21-23 July. Stream the Hungarian GP and more now for £21 a month,