A crash back down to Earth. Was that what McLaren’s Belgian GP weekend was? Lando Norris & Co. at McLaren had been riding on a high since the Austrian GP, where they first introduced their significant upgrade package. When team principal Andrea Stella announced the package, saying it would turn McLaren’s season around, not many people believed him. But McLaren proved everyone wrong, especially after Norris secured two successive second-place finishes at the British and Hungarian GP. And while the Woking squad hoped to continue its momentum in Belgium, things didn’t go according to plan. Even so, their progress hasn’t gone unnoticed and received high praise.

Spa-Francorchamps is a circuit where choosing the right downforce setup is crucial because of how different the fast and straight-dominant first and third sectors are compared to the middle sector. And McLaren went for a high-downforce setting which helped it in wet conditions but not so much in the sunny conditions during Sunday’s race. 

While discussing this on the Sky Sports F1 podcast, Karun Chandok said, “[McLaren] went with a higher downforce package, and Lando got mugged. But because he had the higher downforce package, it enabled him to do that extra long stint on the soft tires, manage the softs, and actually end up seventh.” McLaren scored points in a race in which it had almost no chance, especially because of Norris’ aggressive strategy. But it wasn’t his comeback that impressed Chandok the most.

Chandok said, “I think it’s the best in-season turnaround we’ve seen since Jordan in 1998.” With Ralf Schumacher and Damon Hill in the cockpit of the Jordan 198, the team had a points-less first half. But after a few upgrades, Jordan became one of the top contenders on the grid, even securing a one-two finish at the 1998 Belgian GP. Considering where McLaren was at the start of the 2023 season and where it’s now, the resurgence has been nothing short of exceptional. Even so, the Belgian GP weekend wasn’t what it had hoped for, and Andrea Stella explained the dip in form.

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The cause for Lando Norris’ loss of momentum

Oscar Piastri’s race and impeccable race weekend were cut short after a collision on Lap 1 on Sunday. Despite still being in it, Norris’ race wasn’t looking much better either, especially considering how he lost positions due to McLaren’s slow straight-line speed (the slowest of anyone on the grid). After starting P7, he dropped to P16 in no time. While discussing McLaren’s downforce setting, Andrea Stella said, “In perfect hindsight, we could have tried to find some other solution to reduce the drag on the car.”

He revealed they didn’t want to do that because that would’ve led to a drop in efficiency that would have affected McLaren’s results in the Sprint. He added, “The real correlation is the fact that because we were busy working on other things (referring to the upgrade package), we didn’t have the time to work on low-drag rear wings.” While that did make Norris’ race tricky, it also allowed him to plot his comeback to P7.

Do you feel Lando Norris and McLaren’s turnaround is as significant as Ralf Schumacher and Jordan’s in 1988?

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