McLaren Racing F1 Australian GP qualifying - Focus on tomorrow race 01.04.2023: Australian Grand Prix Albert Park, Melbourne 31 March - April 2nd 2023 Saturday, April 1st 2023 "It just wasn't quite quick enough by the smallest of margins"

Australian Grand Prix
Albert Park, Melbourne
31 March - April 2nd 2023
Saturday, April 1st 2023



"It just wasn't quite quick enough by the smallest of margins"


LANDO NORRIS
FP3     1m19.146 (+1.581s)     12 laps     20th
Q1     1m18.243 (Softs)           12th
Q2     1m18.119 (Softs)           13th



“Today wasn’t quite as good as I was hoping. The cooler conditions just made us struggle a little bit more to be consistent and get the maximum out of the car.


I’m not quite driving the way I want and to the level I want so I struggled to put everything together. But it’s still not a bad position to start and we can hopefully try to get into the points.”



OSCAR PIASTRI
FP3      1m18.713s (+1.148s)      21 laps      14th
Q1     1m18.517s (Softs)            16th


“Obviously not quite what I wanted in Melbourne. The field is extremely tight and there’s not a lot in it. I was reasonably happy with my lap, unfortunately, it just wasn’t quite quick enough by the smallest of margins.


It is what it is and we’ve got tonight to look at everything to put us in the best position to make up some places tomorrow. Hopefully we will have a clean grand prix.”



ANDREA STELLA



“We’re aware that making it through to Q3, with our current car performance, requires us to absolutely maximise every single corner. Today the car was tricky to drive and there was a little bit of lap time left here and there for both Lando and Oscar.


However, the reality is that we don’t have enough underlying performance on the car and that we have a lot of work ahead to improve that. That’s no different from what we have been saying since the start of the season and we stay determined to deliver the upgrades required to improve.

For this weekend, we’re fully focussed on tomorrow’s race. Albert Park can be eventful, and we enter the race with the mindset that we want to score points.”

 
 
 
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