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Tuesday 6 June 2023 17:33, UK
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are the latest guests on the Sky Sports F1 Podcast.
The McLaren drivers join Matt Baker on the podcast, which you can listen to via the player below, for a special Q&A to answer YOUR questions.
Sky Sports F1's Damon Hill and Rachel Brookes were also on the podcast to look back on the Spanish GP as Max Verstappen claimed another victory while Mercedes claimed a double podium to show promising signs of performance from their upgraded W14 car.
Here's a taste of what you can hear on the podcast…
How does Lando Norris get over a bad result on a race weekend?
Lando Norris: "It depends a little bit on the reason for the result. If it's definitely through my own doing, it takes a lot longer to get over it. If it's my mistake whether I crash or spin or get a penalty, if it's 100 per cent down to me or even 50 per cent down to me it's a lot worse than if it's just because we don't have the pace in the car or things like that.
"It depends a lot on the situation we're in. Sochi 2021 was probably one of the hardest things to get over (where Norris was leading the race until heavy rain arrived late on and his decision to delay pitting for wet tyres saw him finish seventh) - not simply because of what happened but because of what we almost achieved.
"So it depends on how things happen, what it's for and so on. I'm a lot better now than what I was - I used to struggle a lot more back in 2019 and 2020. Now I just look at it in a constructive way of learning what went wrong, how can you fix it, how can you be better at whatever the problem was and just try and move on."
How excited is Norris about the new technical appointments at McLaren and with the new wind tunnel coming online, how competitive might McLaren be in 2025?
LN: "From the side of the team and the new people, I'm very happy. There are some big names coming in which is always a great thing, a great addition. People who have been in the sport for many years who have been a crucial part of the success of other teams. Knowledge is one of the biggest things in Formula 1 and personnel, so I think getting some big guys in - not that we had bad people because that's absolutely not true - but making the force bigger is what we needed to go out and compete against these other teams, Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull and so on.
"It's a very good thing. Already factually there's been some good improvements from the development rate and things like that, new ideas, new perspectives so already good progress has been made so I'm looking forward to this year, how we can go into the winter and be better prepared for 2024 and by then we'll have the new wind tunnel and new simulator, and more people coming in 2024 so then I look even more forward to 2025.
"So a lot of exciting things. I try in a way not to look too much into the future but when you're struggling and difficult weekends then you also want to look at the future. I'm very excited for what McLaren are doing, what they've done and the changes we've got ahead."
Where are McLaren currently in terms of race pace?
Oscar Piastri: "I think qualifying in Barcelona (where Norris finished third and Piastri 10th) was pretty unexpected to be that high up on the grid. Without a big mistake in Q3 I think it would have been possible to have both of us up there (near the front) which was very encouraging.
"The Sunday was a bit more back to reality and even harder than we thought it would be (Piastri finished 13th and Norris 17th). We just seem to be really good in those cold, tricky conditions - Monaco was a bit of a similar story when it rained - so that seems to be our strength but the races when it's warmer seems to be our weaknesses at the moment.
"We need to try and get on top of that and make our Sundays a bit easier as that's where the points are."
What is the hope of what's to come from McLaren's upcoming updates between the Austrian and British GPs?
OP: "Hopefully a pretty decent step in performance I would say. Baku was the first step but in a pretty different direction in terms of where the car development was heading and that's all been as we've expected from all the numbers. Now this is building on that new direction.
"So hopefully we can find a decent step in performance. Of course all the other teams are adding performance to their cars as well so we'll see how big of a step it is but we're definitely hoping to take a good step towards the top four teams."
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