Ted Kravitz saw ‘cheeky’ McLaren do something unusual on Lando Norris’ F1 car at Imola

McLaren have dominated the timesheets ahead of qualifying at Imola for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix with title rivals Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris leading the way.

The papaya pals have set the early benchmark times at Imola this weekend, as the European leg of the 2025 season starts. Piastri also heads into the Emilia Romagna GP with the chance of matching a McLaren record that Ayrton Senna set in 1991 by winning four races in a row.

McLaren saw the Australian start his quest to match the Brazilian’s record strongly as Piastri led Norris in FP1 and FP2 for the Emilia Romagna GP on Friday. Qualifying simulations in FP3 on Saturday also saw the Briton respond as Norris led the way by 0.100s with a 1:13.897 lap.

Piastri has even created a 16-point lead over Norris atop the 2025 F1 drivers’ championship after his recent wins in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Miami. But McLaren’s focus during FP3 at Imola with Norris on Saturday morning was not only on this weekend’s Emilia Romagna GP.

Ted Kravitz spotted McLaren run a ‘cheeky’ rear wing test on Lando Norris’ car at Imola

Instead, Ted Kravitz thinks McLaren were ‘cheeky’ and took advantage of a quiet track at the start of FP3 to test a different rear wing on Norris’ car to prepare for the Monaco Grand Prix next week. Imola and Monaco are the first two parts of a triple-header with the Spanish GP.

READ MORE: McLaren driver Lando Norris’ life outside F1 from parents to celebration

So, McLaren started FP3 for the Emilia Romagna GP by putting flow-vis paint on Norris’ rear wing in a move Kravitz feels was designed to see how their car coped with more downforce on the hard C4 compound Pirelli tyres. McLaren are using a low-downforce wing for Imola.

Kravitz said on Sky Sports F1 (17/5, 17:40): “Eyeballing it, that’s a higher-downforce than he was running yesterday. And I’m just wondering if this is a set-up experiment on that harder tyre for Monaco because he’s put what looks like the wing they had yesterday back on.

“So, while everybody else is not going out for whatever reason, I think we have just seen McLaren do a little bit of a cheeky test there. And now they’re just finishing putting the Imola wing back on. It’s not something you see very often in a free practice three.”

McLaren showed their trust in Lando Norris’ feedback with his rear wing test at Imola

McLaren did not spend too long in FP3 for the Emilia Romagna GP testing a high-downforce rear wing on Norris’ car to gather some potentially beneficial data for the Monaco GP. But the brief run at the start of FP3 could see them start from a stronger footing in Monte Carlo.

READ MORE: McLaren driver Oscar Piastri’s life outside F1 from height to girlfriend

Gathering any data on an actual circuit can allow McLaren to correlate their data from their simulator and see how the MCL39 responds in real-life conditions. It even shows how much McLaren are thinking ahead while their rival teams are playing catch-up at Imola this week.

Also, it shows how much McLaren still value Norris’ input to guide the direction they take in setting up the MCL39. It was thought that McLaren have changed their stance on Norris as their team leader amid Piastri’s early dominance this year, but his experience is still telling.