Lando Norris makes light of McLaren’s disastrous start to the F1 season

Lando Norris opted to take a humorous look at McLaren’s awful start to the Formula One season by making light of the amount of pit-stops he made on his way to retirement in Bahrain.

The opening race at the Sakhir circuit proved to be a total disaster for the Woking outfit, with the Brit forced to retire his car two laps from the end of the 57-lap race after making six pit-stops.

It came after his Australian team-mate Oscar Piastri was also forced to pull out as the first retirement of the race just 13 laps in to his debut.

McLaren’s weekend was already looking bleak before the season opener with the team having missed winter development targets in their bid to climb out of the midfield and lead a challenge to the likes of Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari this season. 

Norris, who qualified just outside of the top 10, had problems in the race in relation to a pneumatic power issue that hampered his pace, but he remains hopeful that the issue was a one-off for the team. 

The British star was forced to make six pit-stops in a troublesome evening for the Woking team

‘The main thing was good pit stop practice for the mechanics,’ Norris joked. ‘We just had an issue, if we get rid of the issue everything should be fine.’

Despite McLaren’s rocky opening, the 23-year-old though remains hopeful that McLaren can make gains over the season and will be regular points scorers.

Norris also believes that the closeness of much of the field outside of Red Bull gives them scope to make vast gains up the field, with a potential challenge to Aston Martin on the cards – who finished Sunday’s race in third with Fernando Alonso and sixth with Lance Stroll. 

McLaren’s pace has already proved a concern for the team heading into the new season

‘We obviously still believe we can still score points with the car we have which makes us more optimistic for the season,’ he added.

‘It was a tenth and a half to [Lance] Stroll, who’s clearly much quicker – where I am is where I think we kind of are. I’m happy with it, I think a little bit better than maybe I was expecting from where we were in the test.’

Max Verstappen eventually triumphed in Bahrain in a dominating one-two for the Red Bull team ahead of Sergio Perez, with Alonso scoring his 99th career podium with an impressive third place.

The second race takes place in Saudi Arabia on March 19 at the Jeddah street circuit.