McLaren has introduced several upgrades to its 2025 F1 car, focusing on enhancing Lando Norris‘s confidence and addressing his feedback. These changes were tested during recent events, including the Canadian Grand Prix and the Red Bull Ring, aiming to improve both stability and performance for Norris and teammate Oscar Piastri.
Targeted Suspension and Aerodynamic Adjustments
Both Norris and Piastri have experienced a numbing sensation while driving the MCL39, prompting McLaren to revise its front suspension design. The team has altered the suspension geometry and updated aerodynamic components on the front and rear corners to increase the car’s stability and handling.
Neil Houldey, McLaren’s technical director for engineering, explained that the team has incorporated changes to the rear suspension kinematics focused on increasing rear-end stability, especially during corner entry.
“I’m not going to go into too much detail, but you’ll have seen, up and down the grid, that there have been a number of changes on the rear suspension of the cars, really, suspension kinematics,”
—Neil Houldey, McLaren Technical Director, Engineering
He added that as aerodynamic gains become more challenging, evolving the car’s suspension remains a critical area of development to further enhance performance.
“It’s just an area of development, when aerodynamics become very difficult to gain performance from that, we’ve been involved with and are continuing to evolve the performance of the car.”
Addressing Lando Norris’s Specific Concerns
Houldey confirmed that some of the recent upgrades have been directly influenced by Norris’s detailed feedback since the start of the season, with modifications tailored to improve his car’s feeling and responsiveness.
“There’s obviously a lot more detail that we get in the debriefs from Lando, I think we’ve got an understanding of what he needs to improve the car, and some of the upgrades that we’ve got have been biased towards his comments,”
—Neil Houldey, McLaren Technical Director, Engineering
Through close collaboration with Norris, McLaren has gained a clearer picture of the precise changes necessary to support his driving style and confidence.
“We’ve got a good understanding of what what he does need, and we’re able to make small improvements in a number of areas that will and have helped him over the last few races, and will continue to help him moving forward.”
Although these upgrades are designed with Norris in mind, McLaren intends to implement them across both of its cars, allowing identical performance possibilities for Piastri while maintaining a consistent setup.
“We’ll be running, eventually, everything on both cars. We’re achieving keeping the two cars at a level that’s very, very similar,”
—Neil Houldey, McLaren Technical Director, Engineering
Flexible Upgrades Guided by Data and Preference
The upgrades include adjustments to the suspension and the front wing, all available to both drivers. McLaren’s approach depends heavily on data collected during practice and race sessions, enabling the team to choose the most effective configurations.
If the data confirms that a particular upgrade improves speed or confidence, and Norris prefers that setup, McLaren will adopt it. Otherwise, the team retains the flexibility to stick with the existing configuration.
Houldey noted the ongoing evaluation process involved in optimizing every component, balancing trade-offs to find the best overall performance.
“With all of these things we are trying to find the best of a number of different scenarios and it was the same with the suspension.”
He further explained the team’s cautious approach to minimizing concerns and maximizing advantages through iterative improvements.
“We were concerned in one area, we worked out that wasn’t a concern during the season and you are just trading things to try and find the most optimum performance, which for Lando, we think we’ve now found.”
Implications for McLaren’s 2025 Season
These carefully targeted upgrades illustrate McLaren’s commitment to developing the 2025 challenger to suit the needs of their drivers, especially Lando Norris. By improving car stability and driver confidence, the team hopes to strengthen its competitiveness in the upcoming races.
With ongoing technical revisions based on precise driver feedback and comprehensive data analysis, McLaren aims to achieve consistent performance improvements that benefit both Norris and Piastri throughout the season.
