TECH WEEKLY: The ingenious changes McLaren have made to help Norris re-find his mojo

Have McLaren developed a solution to Lando Norris’ car feel problems that he’s reported since the start of the season? For the first time we can now see the visual difference between the standard McLaren front suspension and the ‘feedback enhanced’ version prepared for Norris in Canada, as can be seen in the Giorgio Piola drawing below.

This was in response to Norris’ complaints that he could not feel the front of the car in the same way he could with last year’s machine.

Speaking back during the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend, the Briton said: “Something’s just not clicking with me and the car. I’m not able to do any of the laps like I was doing last season.

"Then, I knew every single corner, everything that was going to happen with the car – how it was going to happen. I felt on top of the car. This year, I could not have felt more opposite so far.”

Piastri has expressed no such reservations and, although he tried the new specification suspension in practice at Montreal, he decided to remain with the standard system.

McLaren have been working on this revision for almost three months, but at a casual glance there is no obvious difference between the two suspensions.

The drawings show the crucial clue. The upper wishbones of the Norris version mount to the wheel with slightly thicker cross-sections than that of Piastri.

This is not in itself a change which would enhance the feedback to the steering, but it does correlate with a change which would – that of increasing the suspension’s king pin inclination.

What does this mean? The articulation of the wheel as it is steered is partly defined by how the wheel hub is angled from the vertical (as viewed from straight-on).

The difference between the straight line and the angle the hub is running is the king pin inclination.

The wheel will turn through a greater radius (called the scrub radius) the greater that angle is. This will give a greater difference in the weighting feedback through the steering as it is turned through different angles of lock.

If, as we suspect, Norris’ new suspension features a greater king pin inclination to enhance the steering feedback, it would place greater loads at the top of the suspension mounting, providing an explanation for why the top wishbones are slightly sturdier looking.

As ever, time will tell if it can help Norris recover what he feels he has lost in 2025 compared to last year as he looks to chase down his championship-leading team mate.