Lando Norris is now suffering with exactly the same car problem Lewis Hamilton had during Mercedes dominance

Lando Norris set up a comeback drive with a poor qualifying at the Bahrain Grand Prix last weekend. He ended up sixth on the grid as teammate Oscar Piastri took a comfortable pole.

Gary Anderson hit out at Norris for creeping beyond his grid box, which triggered a five-second penalty and made his task even harder. But second place was still in his sights after the safety-car restart.

Norris would toil behind the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc for 16 laps before he finally executed a move. George Russell was his final realistic target as Piastri cruised off into the distance.

The McLaren driver’s racecraft was unconvincing – an optimistic move around the outside on the final lap was never really going to work – and he had to settle for third. Norris has come under fire after his poorest weekend of the season, but it appears there are mitigating circumstances.

Lando Norris’ McLaren isn’t good in traffic – just like Lewis Hamilton’s old Mercedes cars

This year’s McLaren is clearly, as it was billed in pre-season testing, the class of the field. The MCL39 boasts three wins, three poles and seven podiums from the first four rounds.

However, it does have flaws, particularly in its 1.0 form. According to AutoRacer, the papaya car ‘suffers the most’ from turbulence. The car becomes ‘nervous’ in traffic, which makes it ‘very complicated’ to execute an overtake.

This isn’t a ‘coincidence’, rather the trade-off McLaren have made for the ‘optimal range of performance in free air’. But it may explain why Norris struggled so much against Leclerc and Russell despite his inherent pace advantage.

Back in 2018, F1 expert Mark Hughes raised similar concerns about Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes. He wrote in a Sky Sports column that the aerodynamics of the W09 ‘didn’t seem to work as well in traffic as some’.

Hamilton defied those problems to defeat Sebastian Vettel and make it four titles in five seasons. Mercedes, like McLaren this year, designed a car that was supposed be leading races, rather than battling.

David Coulthard says it’s time for Lando Norris to park his brutal honesty

Perhaps the biggest problem for Norris right now is psychological rather than technical. His interviews after qualifying in Bahrain have drawn scrutiny.

Ex-F1 driver Christian Danner said Norris didn’t sound ‘particularly stable’ after Piastri outpaced him by four-tenths. In various media appearances, he gave a brutal assessment of his driving.

Likewise, David Coulthard fears Norris is giving rivals a ‘competitive edge’ by being so harsh on himself. It’s unclear if he’ll be a true contender this year, but Max Verstappen has already shown that he’s willing to play mind games.

In the eyes of Martin Brundle, Verstappen made both McLaren drivers ‘bite’ with his comments pre-Bahrain. He claimed ‘you wouldn’t see’ if he drove the MCL39 because he’d be so far ahead.