After the excellent performances in the last two rounds in Monza and Sochi, which ended with a historic double and pole position respectively, the McLaren suffered a heavy setback in Turkish Grand Prix: while Daniel Ricciardo even ended up outside the points, with a 13th place also the son of the start from the bottom of the grid to replace the power unit, it went slightly better for Lando Norris. The Briton, who in Russia had come close to the dream of victory, did not manage to repeat himself at high levels in Istanbul, finishing the race exactly from the point where it started, with a seventh place.
A collective performance that cannot satisfy the drivers and men of the Woking team, who, after having touched the sky with a finger after years of difficulties in recent releases, had to deal with a colorless test today. A Grand Prix so analyzed by Norris, who commented on his performance after the display of the checkered flag: “Today was a hard and long race – admitted the British – mainly for the conditions. It was difficult to keep the intermediates in a good window of use, but I think we still managed to get the best, so I must be happy for seventh. We have limited the damage on this track. I am satisfied, but we have to refine several aspects in view of the next race – concluded Norris – it is important to re-establish ourselves in order to push to the maximum ”.
On the other hand, he cannot be satisfied with this weekend Daniel Ricciardo, author of a comeback that ended out of the top 10 that canceled the usual smile of the Australian driver: “I believe that we only did four laps with a good pace, but the rest of the race was difficult – commented the winner of the Italian GP – At the beginning we struggled a lot with the front, so it was really difficult to stay close to the others, and at that point we made a stop to change the tires. Once I got back on the track, I didn’t feel the rear which I felt at the beginning of the race, even if, later on, the difficulty returned. In that stint there were maybe four laps where I felt like I could push hard, and that’s what I tried to do. I thought the situation would get better and better, and instead the rear wheels are once again having problems. Consequentially, the last ten laps were a bit tough, I was just trying to resist. When I saw my tires I knew they had reached the limit. Unfortunately it wasn’t a good performance on our part – concluded Ricciardo – but we will try to understand what went wrong ”.