McLaren driver Lando Norris says the pain he felt while contesting the Styrian Grand Prix last weekend was a consequence of the long hiatus in Formula 1 track action before this month’s races.
As early as the second practice session at last weekend’s second consecutive race at the Red Bull Ring, Norris had radioed to tell his McLaren team that he was suffering chest pain while in the car.
Last weekend’s race came immediately after the campaign-opening Austria Grand Prix – in which Norris scored his first podium for McLaren – amid a delayed F1 season start as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prior to the Austrian Grand Prix, the last time drivers had the opportunity to drive their cars was at pre-season testing in February, with the 2019 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last December the last time the field raced competitively.
Ahead of this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix, which marks the conclusion of the initial triple-header and is followed by a week’s break, Norris attributed his pain to bruising sustained in the first race of the season as a result of the long gap between races.
“I’m feeling better for this week which is a very good thing, I went back to the UK in the last few days in my bubble to go and see specialists and get scans and so on,” said Norris.
“We’ve diagnosed for the most part what the problem was and I’m feeling better.
“It’s not something that’s going to go completely or heal overnight but I’m much better than what I was for last weekend – hard to know until I’m in the car and increasing to the limit again.
“It’s just bruising from being out of the car for so long basically and then getting back into it and doing a race weekend.
“It wasn’t something I could prepare for or know about until after we did the first weekend and then having a few days off in between.
“It hit my body a few days later and I was just bruised and so on.”
When asked by The Race what Norris and McLaren had done to ameliorate the issue, he said that the team had changed his seating position in the car.
“There are a couple things in terms of comfort which I changed after the first weekend for the second weekend that I was much more comfortable with, so a bit of my seating position and steering position,” said Norris.
“Again, just for being out of it for so long we did the seat fit and so on before we went back to Austria.
“But having just put on so much muscle over the break I was just a bit out! I just was slightly shaped differently in my seat.
“So I had to change a few pads around and a bit of my position and so on, which could have been a bit of a cause and a bit of a lead for it.
“But it’s too difficult to say the exact reasons of why it’s happened and so on.
“It’s something that over time will just get much better and I will be less prone to getting in the future.”
