诺里斯称迈凯伦仍落后一步，MCL40低速弯成难题
迈凯伦在2026赛季美国大奖赛练习后仍受低速弯表现困扰，诺里斯表示车队“只是落后一步”。车队正着手修改悬挂几何并调整空气动力学理念。
“我们只是落后一步”——迈凯伦正试图通过2026赛季最后的升级解决什么问题
低速弯表现仍是“刀锋边缘”般MCL40的难题，因此迈凯伦一直在着手修改悬挂几何，并采用不同的空气动力学理念
“要让赛车变快，我们不得不拼命做到完美，而人不可能做到完美，”兰多·诺里斯在奥斯汀举行的F1美国大奖赛练习赛后说。
“我们只是落后一步。”
诺里斯本赛季中段的两场胜利现在看来更像是一段“高光期”，而非迈凯伦在2026赛季开局不顺之后竞争力复苏的预兆。在美国大奖赛上，车队引入了今年最终升级套件的第一批部件，该套件计划从本站到拉斯维加斯大奖赛之间分阶段推出。
尽管到赛季中段时，迈凯伦已将MCL40研发到在快速弯道中属于最快赛车之列的水平，但直线速度和慢弯表现仍然存在问题，赛车神经质的操控特性也同样如此。研发工作不得不在两方面之间取得平衡：不仅要创造理论上的性能，还要让赛车足够温顺，使车手能够挖掘出那份潜力。
“每个弯道都像在刀锋上行走，”这位卫冕世界冠军在新加坡说道。“你必须以精确到某个百分比的精度来驾驶它，而且你必须在各个方面强行操控赛车。你不能让赛车自己去做任何工作。你不能只让前部去做功，也不能只让后部去做功。你必须强行控制前部；你必须强行控制后部。
“你必须以需要极高专注力和极强能力的方式来驾驶它。这完全是全力以赴，而且精神上非常消耗，因为你在方向盘后面必须付出多么大的努力。”
“这实在太难了，这让在排位赛中做出完整圈速变得不可能，这恰恰说明了我们在匈牙利、荷兰和西班牙拿到杆位时做得有多出色，以及那种感觉有多值得。”
慢弯表现不仅仅是空气动力学的作用。尽管诺里斯的驾驶风格比许多其他车手更具适应性，但即便如此，这也要求赛车具备某些特定优点。他比其他车手更浅地切入弯心，油门和刹车的重叠程度更高。他的强项是对前轮在弯中何时获得侧向抓地力有着极强的感知，他利用这一点来帮助赛车旋转。
对他不利的是，悬挂系统趋向于采用高度抗后坐、抗俯冲的几何设定。尽管这稳定了赛车的空气动力学平台，但它抑制了关于每个车轴抓地力变化状态的‘感觉’传递。失去了这一点，诺里斯无法信任赛车的前端或后端——这就是为什么去年在迈凯伦为他开发了替代前悬挂几何设定后，他在缓慢开局后表现大幅提升。
在这种背景下，迈凯伦在奥斯汀的最新升级中率先采用修订后的前端几何设定，以及重新塑形的扩散器部件，这并不令人意外。据了解，下一阶段的升级将在巴西应用，更多升级将根据制造时间表在拉斯维加斯到来。
迈凯伦将在接下来几场比赛中为赛车带来的新部件，是在8月底的荷兰大奖赛和9月第一周的意大利大奖赛之间完成签批的，并且一直在推进生产流程。自那以后，迈凯伦的设计资源就完全集中在2027年的赛车上。
内部人士表示，车队在4月因巴林和沙特阿拉伯大奖赛取消而造成的空档期里，确定了一个新的空气动力学方向。他们相信，这最终会带来比车队赛季初所用概念更高的性能上限。
这在F1中相对常见，尤其是在新规则周期内。但人们很容易贸然下结论，认为如果升级套件没有立即带来显著的圈速提升，那就是以某种方式失败了。从工程角度看，这只是在建立新的基准。
迈凯伦在阿塞拜疆大奖赛周末推出了其新空气动力学概念的第一个版本，核心是截然不同的侧箱轮廓，以及扩散器内外导流件、地板前缘和后悬挂整流罩经过大幅修改的几何形状。车队谨慎地管理预期，强调并不指望圈速立刻大幅提升。
随后各种情况叠加在一起，使得新的配置表面上看起来效果不佳：诺里斯因燃油喷射问题受阻，而奥斯卡·皮亚斯特里在比赛初期努力将马克斯·维斯塔潘和伊萨克·哈贾尔的赛车挡在身后，随后在第二次安全车重启时锁死轮胎，跌出了积分区。后来车队承认，至少部分直线速度的劣势是由于未能充分发挥其梅赛德斯动力单元的潜力。
“我们将在赛季最后阶段带来更多升级，这些升级是在巴库所交付升级奠定的基础上进行的，”车队领队安德烈亚·斯特拉在新加坡站后表示。
“巴库的升级原本预计幅度不大，但它为一些我们将在奥斯汀和接下来的比赛中开始带到赛道上的东西奠定了基础。所以对我来说最重要的是，我期待从下一场比赛开始看到我们的竞争力。希望我们能回到有能力登上领奖台的状态，并且希望一旦完整套件交付，能够为胜利而战。”
迈凯伦并不是唯一一支在试图提升赛车性能时发现自己要应对不稳定性问题的车队。梅赛德斯甚至在新加坡运行了两种不同的赛车规格，以试图理解其最新升级的行为——但值得注意的是，它在奥斯汀选择了最新规格。正如诺里斯在美国大奖赛周末前所解释的那样，升级F1赛车并不是一个可预测且线性的过程。
“升级并不总是装上就能见效，”他说，“它们并不总是那么容易发挥出全部潜力。我觉得我们这辆车一直都非常、非常难驾驶。是的，我们赢了两场比赛，我也拿到过几次领奖台，但优势都极其微弱。开着那样一辆车，你不可能稳定地做到这一点。”
“我们还需要在驾驶的轻松程度和更容易发挥性能方面改进这辆车。”
英文原文
"We're just a step behind" - what McLaren is trying to solve with its final 2026 upgrades
Slow-corner performance remains a problem for the "knife edge" MCL40, so McLaren has been working towards a revised suspension geometry as well as a different aerodynamic philosophy
"To get the car to be quick, we just have to try so hard to be perfect, and you cannot be perfect," said Lando Norris after practice for the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix in Austin.
"We're just a step behind."
Two mid-season wins for Norris now appear to be a 'purple patch' rather than harbingers of a competitive renaissance for McLaren after a troubled start to the 2026 season. At the US GP it introduced the first elements of what will be the final upgrade package of the year, due to be introduced in stages between this event and the Las Vegas GP.
Although by mid-season McLaren had developed the MCL40 to the point where it was among the fastest cars through quick corners, straightline speed and slow-corner performance have continued to be problematic, as has its nervous demeanour. Development has had to balance the process not just of creating theoretical performance, but also of making the car benign enough for the drivers to tap into that potential.
"It's just on a knife edge on every single corner," said the reigning world champion in Singapore. "You've just got to drive it within an exact percent, and you have to force the car in every single way. You can't let the car do any work. You can't just let the front do the work, or the rear do the work. You have to force the front; you've got to force the rear.
"You've got to drive it in a way that takes so much concentration and so much ability. It's just full-on and mentally draining because of how hard you have to work behind the wheels.
"It's just too difficult and it makes it impossible to put laps together in qualifying, which just shows how good of a job we were able to do when we were getting on pole [in Hungary, the Netherlands and Spain], and how rewarding that felt."
Slow-corner performance isn't just a function of aerodynamics. Although Norris has a more adaptable style than many other drivers, even this requires the car to have a certain set of virtues. He takes a shallower approach to the apex than others, overlapping throttle and brake to a higher degree. His strength is a tremendous feel for where the front tyres pick up lateral grip mid-corner, which he exploits to help rotate the car.
What operates against him is the trend towards running a high degree of anti-squat, anti-dive geometry in the suspension. Although this stabilises the car's aerodynamic platform, it smothers the transmission of 'feel' about the changing state of grip at each axle. Shorn of this, Norris can't trust either end of the car – which is why, last year, his performances picked up dramatically after a slow start when McLaren developed an alternate front suspension geometry suspension for him.
In that context it's no surprise that McLaren has led with a revised front-end geometry for this latest update in Austin, along with reprofiled diffuser furniture. It's understood that the next phase of the upgrade will be applied in Brazil, with more arriving for Las Vegas depending on manufacturing timescales.
The new components McLaren will bring to the car in the coming races were signed off between the Dutch GP in late August and the Italian GP in the first week of September, and have been making their way through the production process. McLaren's design resources have been fully focused on the 2027 car ever since.
Insiders say the team identified a new aerodynamic direction during the April interregnum caused by the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian grands prix. The belief was that it would ultimately lead to a higher performance ceiling than the concept with which the team started the season.
This is a relatively typical occurrence in F1, especially during a new rules cycle. But it is very easy to leap to the conclusion that an upgrade package has somehow been a failure if it doesn't deliver an immediate and significant lap time uplift. From an engineering point of view it is simply establishing a new baseline.
McLaren introduced the first iteration of its new aerodynamic concept in the Azerbaijan GP weekend, centring around a dramatically different sidepod profile, along with heavily revised geometries for the flow conditioners in and around the diffuser, the leading edge of the floor, and the rear suspension fairings. The team was careful to manage expectations, emphasising that it wasn't expecting a major improvement in lap time straight away.
Circumstances then combined to make the new configuration appear, superficially, to be ineffective: Norris was stymied by a fuel injection problem while Oscar Piastri laboured to keep the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar behind him in the early phase of the race, then dropped out of the points after locking up at the second safety car restart. Later the team admitted that at least some of the straightline speed deficit was a consequence of not getting the most out of its Mercedes power unit.
"We will be having some more upgrades coming for the final part of the season, which is the kind of upgrades that follow the foundation set with the upgrades we delivered in Baku," said team principal Andrea Stella after the Singapore round.
"The step in Baku wasn't expected to be big, but it was foundational for some stuff that we will start taking trackside as of Austin and for the coming races. So what's most important for me is that I look forward to seeing our competitiveness from the next race. And hopefully we will be back to being in condition to score podiums and hopefully, once the full package is delivered, to compete for the victory."
McLaren isn't the only team to find itself combatting instability as it tries to add performance to its car. Mercedes went to the extent of running two different car specs in Singapore to try to understand the behaviour of its latest upgrade – but, notably, it has opted for the latest spec in Austin. As Norris explained ahead of the US GP weekend, upgrading an F1 car isn't a predictable and linear process.
"Upgrades are not always just you put them on and things work," he said. "They're not always easy to get the full potential out of. I think we've had a car which has just been still so, so difficult to drive. Yes, we won two races and I had a couple of podium positions, but it was by tiny margins. With a car like that, you'll not be able to do that consistently.
"We need to also improve the car in terms of ease of driving and ease of extracting performance."
Motorsport.com ·
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