Breaking news

Formula 1 Tuscany GP

Sainz says McLaren's drop in form "a nasty surprise"

McLaren Formula 1 team drivers Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris say that wind sensitivity was the cause of the drop in form of the orange cars between Monza and Mugello.

Adam Cooper

Published: Sep 12, 2020, 5:17 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Carlos Sainz Jr., McLaren MCL35

After the pair qualified third and sixth for the Italian GP, they slipped back to 10th and 11th on the grid for the Tuscan GP, with Sainz calling the turnround a "nasty surprise".

Norris's preparations were not helped by a crash on Friday, which saw him damage the front of the car and lose valuable track time.

"I think this is not going to be the last time where we see these kind of performance swings between teams from track to track," said Sainz.

"On paper, we thought this track was gonna be good for us. Before going into this weekend we thought these kinds of corners were going to suit us, but the midfield of F1 always has surprises for you.

"And this has been a nasty surprise. But I think we kept our heads down and we managed to improve the car quite a lot going into qualifying. So we also need to be happy and proud as a team that we didn't lose our heads too much."

Both drivers stressed that windy conditions at Mugello highlighted an inherent problem in the car.

"It's been the same case since 2019 when I arrived to McLaren that we felt like our car is very sensitive to tailwind corners mainly," said Sainz. "And it's very good in headwind corners. So both sides of the thing.

"Once you get in a tow, what you have is a lot more tailwind, you basically have tailwind in every corner.

"That's why in places like Monza we were talking about trying not to go in the tow of some of our competitors, because we found that that generated a tailwind in our car, and we don't like how that tailwind reacts in our car.

"It's something we are investigating, and we are trying to improve, and trying to understand. Why is this causing these kinds of effects, and why are we suffering a bit more?

"Slipstream means tailwind, and we are bad in tailwind, as we saw here in Mugello in a lot of the first sector and second sector corners."

Norris said that the track surface also played a part in the team's struggles to come to terms with Mugello.

"It's the wind and tarmac," said the Englishman. "I think those two factors. Mainly wind, it's not one of our strengths, it's one of our weaknesses with wind, and there's been quite a bit of wind the last two days.

"And that's been probably one of the biggest factors in our struggles, in the mistakes and so on."

McLaren team boss Andreas Seidl stressed that the team has been working on the wind sensitivity issue.

"It's definitely something we are aware of, about this weakness of this car since last year, as Carlos said," said Seidl.

"And that's something that James [Key] together with his aero department is putting a lot of effort into, simply trying to reduce this sensitivity by continuous developments we bring to the to car."

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Wolff on reverse grids: F1 is "not a reality show"

Next article Formula 1 Tuscan Grand Prix – How to watch, start time & more

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Lamborghini World Finals | PRO-PRO/AM Qualifying: Pole position for Lind, Bamber, Van der Drift and Marcelli

Lamborghini Super Trofeo

LBST Lamborghini Super Trofeo

World Finals - Monza 2026

5 min

Lamborghini World Finals | PRO-PRO/AM Qualifying: Pole position for Lind, Bamber, Van der Drift and Marcelli

Jorge Martin's endless ordeal since signing for Aprilia

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Australian GP

20 min

Jorge Martin's endless ordeal since signing for Aprilia

Johann Zarco retires from Australian GP sprint: It was “dangerous” to continue

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Australian GP

45 min

Johann Zarco retires from Australian GP sprint: It was “dangerous” to continue

Lamborghini World Finals | AM-LC Qualifying: Lewandowski dominates, taking pole for both races

Lamborghini Super Trofeo

LBST Lamborghini Super Trofeo

World Finals - Monza 2026

1 h

Lamborghini World Finals | AM-LC Qualifying: Lewandowski dominates, taking pole for both races

Feature

Discover prime content

What we learned from Friday practice at the 2026 United States GP

Formula 1

United States GP

By Jake Boxall-Legge

What we learned from Friday practice at the 2026 United States GP

Max Verstappen’s words explained: Why Red Bull’s turnaround is so different this time

Formula 1

United States GP

By Ronald Vording

Max Verstappen’s words explained: Why Red Bull’s turnaround is so different this time

Mission control: Inside the FIA and F1's latest answer to football's VAR

Formula 1

United States GP

By Jake Boxall-Legge

Mission control: Inside the FIA and F1's latest answer to football's VAR

How Kimi Antonelli levelled up his character to be F1 2026's world champion-elect

Formula 1

United States GP

By Filip Cleeren

How Kimi Antonelli levelled up his character to be F1 2026's world champion-elect

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts