Portugal GP 2020 - GP preview - McLaren

Lando Norris

“The Nürburgring was the first time this season that we couldn’t get the car over the finish line, which I’m a bit gutted about. I gave it my all, but it just wasn’t meant to be and we missed out on a good chunk of points. We’re still in the fight and we’ve got something to chase. We just need to focus on ourselves and take each race as it comes.

“It’s really cool that we’re able to race at tracks like Portimão that are completely new to F1 during this unusual season. The circuit is probably new to a lot of the guys with a few of them having experience there in junior levels. I actually got to do a two-day test there in a 2011 MP4-26 back in 2017, which was a bit different to the usual few laps testing at Silverstone. Not sure if it will give me a little bit of an edge on the drivers who are new to the track, but we’ll have to wait and see. Let’s try and get some good points this weekend!”

Carlos Sainz

“Last time out in Germany wasn’t our best weekend despite scoring a good result in P5. We’ve been working hard these past days with all the data gathered in the race and hopefully we can address the issues we faced coming into Portugal.

“Portimão is definitely an unknown for me, as it is for many of the drivers and for F1. I like the challenge and I’m looking to get up to speed right from the start of the weekend. Our rivals are performing on track and we still want to be in the battle to finish higher in the championship. There are six races to go and we’ll keep pushing until the very last one.”

Andreas Seidl - Team Principal

“As we prepare to head to Portugal, our focus since Germany has been on analysing and understanding the data we gathered at the Nürburgring so that we come to the right conclusions and find the best way to progress. Based on that analysis we will continue to use our new nose box aero concept combined with a known competitive car configuration. We will continue to bring more new upgrades to the car to test on Friday and also further explore and quantify our new aero concept.

“It’s great to be heading to Portugal and to a new track this season especially with the circumstances that this year has brought. This will be the first time that Formula 1 has raced at the Portimão circuit with it only being used for winter testing during the 2008 – 2009 season. Similar to Mugello, the Portimão circuit is an unknown with limited historic data on the track, so we’re trying to understand how current F1 cars will perform through simulation. I’m sure it will be a good test for all teams and drivers to fully understand the track and best prepare for qualifying and the race.”