McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has clarified the issues with Lando Norris' current Mercedes power unit, as the reigning champion rued the lack of straightline speed in Formula 1 qualifying for the second week running. Although McLaren is known to be missing straightline speed versus its other Mercedes-powered counterparts owing to its selected gear ratios being lower, Norris had a deficit on top of that across the Baku weekend. This deficit has resurfaced, although McLaren was losing further time across qualifying when compared to the Red Bulls and Ferraris.
Stella explained the mechanics at play with Norris' power unit issue, but added that it was difficult to diagnose given the complexities of the current regulations and the myriad factors that could hold an effect. A deployment issue, for instance, would be easier to spot - but a mechanical issue outside of the reach of sensors would be tough to identify. The Italian believes that this is costing Norris somewhere between 0.1-0.2s seconds per lap, a not-insignificant deficit given the margins involved in qualifying.
"I think more precisely we should say that the issue we see on Lando's car is about a lack of straightline speed. So we see that in the power limited section, the car accelerates a little less and develops a little bit less top speed, all the other parameters being the same," Stella explained.
The main issue seemed to be largely restricted to the latter half of the lap, where Piastri found more top speed over Norris between Turns 13 and 14, and then on the back straight towards Turn 15. "But at the same time there's the areas of the power unit that depend on what's happening on the chassis side and finally there could be parameters that have to do with the drag of the car," Stella continued.
"At no point we are making a point about power unit, we are just making a point about a lack of straightline speed which we want to make a point about - because it's fair to Lando that we take the responsibility for the fact that on his car there's a lap time deficit which at the moment we have not been able to remove in a couple of events."
Source: Autosport F1 News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing