McLaren boss Andrea Stella has suggested Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri may well end up diverging on suspension choice over the remainder of the year – but denies this could become a factor that influences their Formula 1 title battle.
Norris has gone it alone in committing to an upgraded suspension geometry for this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix, having elected to first test it on Friday.
The tweak, which is relatively minor, is aimed at improving a weakness that this year's MCL39 has in not giving enough feedback from the front axle for the drivers.
This is an issue that Norris, in particular, has struggled with, especially during the critical final moments of qualifying, and has been likened by the team to a feeling of ‘numbness'.
A successful change?
Early indications from the Montreal weekend point to the new suspension configuration doing what it was supposed to do – even though Norris did not maximise the benefits from it in qualifying as a scruffy lap left him seventh on the grid.
Speaking about the benefits of it, Stella said: "The suspension change is aimed at passing a bit more feeling through the suspension and the steering to our drivers.
"In this respect, I think, in itself, it is such a small change that it is difficult for drivers to isolate the effect, unless you do a back-to-back comparison, which is always very difficult to do in a race weekend.
"But from Lando's point of view, there was no downside. I think, if anything, I have to say that despite the result that we had in Q3 with Lando…the experimentation of the front suspension is a successful one, and is a preference."
But while Norris has been alone in running it this weekend, that is not to say that the suspension has only been introduced to help him – because Piastri was offered it and elected not to take it.
Asked by The Race about why he chose not to take it, Piastri said: "I'm not that concerned really. I'm obviously not going to get into too much detail on it, but I could have run it if I wanted to, and I didn't really.
"It changes some things—some things are better, some things are worse. It's not as simple. It's not an upgrade, it's a different part.
"So, yeah, I had the option to run it but chose not to. I've been happy with how the car's been so far this year and, again, just wanted to keep consistency."
Split choices
Stella said there may become a trend of his two drivers settling on different suspension configurations – but he played down the significance of it as he suggested it was actually nothing more than a set-up option.
"It is possible that the two drivers will adopt a different specification of front suspension, but we are talking about minor changes from a suspension geometry point of view," he said.
"It is certainly nothing that is dramatically impactful from a performance point of view. It just affects the way in which the drivers perceive what's happening at the tyre, through the front suspension and the steering.
"So it really has to do with some preferential aspects in terms of how drivers drive the car, rather than an increase of grip on the car.
"And let me say that there are some other things, from a suspension point of view, that are actually slightly different between Lando and Oscar but they are part of some minor parameters."
Norris reckoned that a definitive verdict on the suspension was not possible based on a single weekend, and it would take further running to evaluate its true benefits.
Asked by The Race if he had felt any difference, he said: "It's tough to say because at this track everything just feels different.
"I think it's something we'll have to wait and see on at the next few races - through Austria and Silverstone and so forth - and maybe back-to-back tests to understand.
"It's nothing that I've felt just yet. But it's more that when you go to a new track it's hard to remember everything perfectly relative to other tracks. Like I said, we just need a bit more time to understand if it's any better or not."
He added: "It can be a benefit elsewhere but it's not a guarantee that it's going to be a benefit just yet. It's aimed to maybe give a bit more feeling. It's not aimed to make us quicker or give the car more performance. It's again something that we'll have to review over time."
