mclaren and Bahrain had a strange weekend Overall feeling within the team was massively positive going away from the race after they got their first ever win in Bahrain in front of their Bahraini owners Zack Brown was his usual self massively excited and acting as if he won the lottery And Oscar was also his usual self and seemed just as excited to win the race as he did spinning off in Australia The team brought home a double podium with a 13 extending their lead in the constructor's championship over Mercedes But underneath the positivity it's impossible to
ignore the strange weekend of Lando Norris On the surface recovering to P3 after starting in P6 is not exactly a terrible weekend but the way he got there and the numerous mistakes that he made along the way is what really sets off alarm bells Oscar looked to have the edge over Lando all the way from the beginning of practice In the warmer temperatures during FP3 which really suited McLaren Pastri was a ridiculous 6/10 quicker than Lando and 8/10 quicker than Llair In the cooler conditions of qualifying and the race however it tilted the balance of
performance back a little bit more in favor of Mercedes closing the field up Even then Oscar set a commanding pole position and controlled the race completely with absolutely no drama When you consider that he was 7.5 seconds ahead of Russell before the safety car and then finished the race with a 15.5 second gap that means that Pastry basically dominated this Grand Prix with a 23 second margin over everybody else This almost needs to go unsaid but there is absolutely no doubt that Pastri is a genuine title contender And I think now in the eyes of
many he is probably the title favorite Despite McLaren's dominance Lando by his own admission was struggling from practice And again although P3 on paper doesn't look that terrible his weekend and just his general demeanor only four races into the season were really worrying In qualifying he underperformed qualifying down in sixth behind the Mercedes the Ferrari and also the Alpine of Pierre Gazzley Before the race even started he got a 5-second penalty for going beyond his grid box at the start which he called an incredibly stupid mistake And that meant that he was always going to
have to work his way through the field and overtake a lot of other cars which to his credit amazingly he had a great start jumping from sixth to third on the opening lap However after serving his penalty and after the safety car restart despite having a tire and performance advantage over the likes of McLaren Russell he was very unconvincing in wheel-to-heel combat with lockups into turn one and poor decision-m with where to place his car especially for turn four which turned out to be the best corner for overtaking if you could set your car up
the right way through turns one and turn two The sum total to all of that is that Lando's final result actually kind of flatters his performance Lando's biggest problem is that the MCL39 just doesn't suit the way that he likes to drive McLaren in cooler conditions struggles a little bit more with getting its front tires up to temperature However in warmer conditions and during the race this results in better tire wear with less thermal degradation Orlando likes to attack corner entries riding the brakes very hard and very late into the corner and sometimes even launching
his car over the curb As long as there's enough load over the front end he can use that to carry the speed through the corner and basically deal with any instability on corner exits McLaren have found performance and have developed the MCL39 to have a lot more of a neutral balance While watching Oscar's pole lap his inputs are buttery smooth going into the corner but that allows him to get onto the power very early on corner exit which is where he was able to gain the most amount of time Essentially there is a clash in
how Lando likes to find time which is on corner entry with a very front-loaded aero balance and how the car needs to be driven to get the most performance out of it which is a lot more neutral going into the corner but then getting onto the throttle a lot earlier The difficulty is that if he doesn't break late enough and takes it too easy going into the corner then all he's going to be doing is bleeding lap time But when he's tried to push he just can't rotate the car the way that he likes And
that's then leading to midc corner under steer or even lay corner over steer when he's overdriv Orlando has talked very openly after Australia after China and now during the Bahin weekend that whilst the team will always chase peak performance and clearly McLaren have more usable downforce and better tire wear than any other team when the balance goes away from the front end which is what he likes It makes the car more unstable to drive going into the corners especially when he's pushing in qualifying when you're trying to chase those last few tents which are the
most difficult to find Speaking about his difficulties with the car earlier in the season Lando said "It doesn't suit me in terms of me wanting to push the entries and push the braking It's very weak from that point of view." So not what I like but at the same time some of it is down to the adaptation of needing to change a little bit my driving styles every year The car I drive this year is very different to what a McLaren was a few years ago clearly because we were at the back and now we're
at the front If you do want a bit more front end at midc corner at the minute we can only get that if we compromise the low speed or high-speed performance or win conditions there is just so many compromises you've got to make And now this has been going on since Lando first drove the car during preseason testing But in Bahrain what stood out was Lando's demeanor After qualifying he was so down and so self-deprecating it was almost uncomfortable to watch his interviews His voice was really quiet His answers were very short and when he
did speak he made comments like "It feels like I've never driven a Formula 1 car before." Now drivers are always going to be their own worst critics and Lando's demeanor reminded me a lot of when used to make mistakes and how self-critical he was However with Lando I honestly feel like sometimes he's too hard on himself and that he struggles to get over the disappointment a lot quicker than he should Even when Oscar is frustrated he gives absolutely nothing away when it comes to the mental side And that makes him a lot more stable and
a lot more consistent regardless of if he's winning or if he's losing When it comes to Lando it's difficult to judge a driver and say that he should hide his emotions But I do think that Lando needs someone to help him cope with the disappointment a little bit better because his competition can latch onto that kind of mental weakness and use it as a strength Orlando should always be himself and not pretend to be something he's not because being yourself gives you confidence as a person which ultimately puts you into a better frame of mind
to perform when you're in the car But he's also got to balance to not be too negative on himself because unlike with the drivers like a Hamilton those drivers are able to compartmentalize that negativity a lot better and not let it affect them when it comes to the Grand Prix And now regardless of how bad things got in Bahrain Lando has got to take the positives even out of a bad weekend And I hope the people around him are reassuring him in the right way He is still the leader of the championship He is still
driving the best car on the grid And he is still immensely talented and capable of winning this world championship Given how much Oscar has improved and some might even argue that he's even beginning to supersede Lando at McLaren Lando has got to prioritize working with a team either on the development side or on the setup side to get the MCL39 more towards that balance that he wants to win races This fight for supremacy and ultimate control of McLaren between Oscar and Lando is what's going to define the early part of this season And unless Lander
begins to change something with the car and with himself mentally Oscar is just going to continue to feed off that weakness and continue to press his advantage with the momentum that he is building Well there you have it If you did enjoy this video then don't forget to subscribe to the channel That would be massively appreciated And I'll see you in the next one [Music]
