Lando Norris admits he is "making too many mistakes" due to the handling of his McLaren car.
The Briton was only 14th fastest in practice at the Spanish Grand Prix on Friday and slower than his rookie teammate Oscar Piastri in 12th.
This is as McLaren continues to sit towards the bottom of the grid pecking order, despite a better showing, particularly in the wet in Monaco last weekend.
“Tough. It’s probably been quite a tough day,” Norris said evaluating his Friday in Barcelona. “It’s been one of our trickier Fridays I would say in terms of pace, setup.
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“We struggled with a few different things in FP1 - some of which we improved a little bit, some which we’re still struggling a little bit with just in terms of the handling, putting a lap together.
“I am making too many mistakes because of how I feel like I have to drive the car at the minute."
Norris tried to put a little silver lining on the situation, concluding: "I think the pace can be there. Tomorrow is a new day.”
McLaren has been playing catch up from the very start of 2023 when the team admitted at their launch that the MCL60 was behind expectations.
An upgrade in Baku was meant to put the Woking-based team back on track but results have been mixed as the likes of Alpine and Aston Martin make bigger gains.
Now, McLaren team boss Andrea Stella is promising another design revamp next month in a push to move up the grid.
"The plan is we need to get the car more competitive," he said via Crash.net.
"We've now released the package which should be available between Austria and Britain, and this is what should take the car to a more competitive level.
"It's progressing the car, evolving concepts we see as successful. It will be noticeably different to what we have at the moment.
"It will be the foundation for future developments next year. For the second part of the season, there should be another major upgrade."
