Lando Norris says there is “good confidence” in McLaren after getting through the opening two days o🏅f Formula 1 pre-season testing without encountering ༺any “big problems”. 

The 19-year-old rookie turned in an impressive day for McLaren as he logged 104 laps on his way to finishing just three tenths off t🅷he pace of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc on Tuesday, adding🦹 to the mileage Carlos Sainz racked up on the opening day. 

Barring a brief stopp൩age for Sainz on Monday due to a loss of power, McLaren has run largely issue-free in a stark contrast to winter tests of previous years. 

“I managed to do some longer runs, something I haven’t managed to do so much of in any o🎃ther tests so far,” Norris said at the end of his first day behind the wheel of the MCL34. 

“So for myself it’s good to know that we can get through pretty much a whole day with no big🐼 pꦇroblems. 

“But♛ it’s only day two. I’m sure we’re going to run into a couple of problems at some point, but it’s just making sure I guess that we can get through this whole test. 

“We know what the problems might be on thꦕe car that could come up,” he added. 

“So it’s just making sure we figure them out before Australia, and none of them pop up, knowing that✨ we could have fixed it at some point over the🐠se couple of weeks. 

“It’s good confidence from myself and from the te🎃am knowing that there’s not a lot ꦐto keep chasing up on and keep checking after every run. 

꧋“I think for the team side as well, and it’s good for them knowing they’re going to be confident getting through every run plan possible through every day.” 

Norris drove McLaren’s 2018 challenger during seven practice sessions lasཧt year and is confident the team has made a step forward with its MCL34, though he stressed it is “not a perfect car”. 

“Some things we’ve im🍨proved on from a car perspective,” Norris explained.

“But there’s a lot to work on - a lot of stuff that we’ve learned ove♌r the last couple of days that we need to fairly quickly develop and i🎃mprove on for the rest of the test and going into the first race. 

“It’s hard to say if all t🦄he problems are gone. There are still some things that we struggle with. It’s not a perfect car, for sure. But I think so far, so good, and between Carlos [Sainz] and myself, we’re reasonably happy with how everything felt so far.

“These nextও few days, the car is probably never going to look perfect. We’re trying to explore every area we can to make sure by the end of this test, we know the correct direction to work and develop the car in. 

“So throughout the season, we know where to push the car or what♍ areas we really have to develop to become ✃better or make the car faster.”