Both McLaren drivers were left disappointed after lowly top 10 places in qualifying at the Eifel Grand Prix.
Carlos Sainz will start 10th and Lando Norris eighth at the Nurburgring as they continue their epic duel with Renault and Racing Point for third in the Constructors’ Championship.
For the Spaniard, however, there was a feeling of what could have been as the cancelled practice on Friday due to fog prevented McLaren from optimising their latest upgrades.
“It was a struggle, honestly,” Sainz said via Formula1.com. “When you put a lot of new bits and pieces on the car, you need your Friday, you need your time to put the car together, and to put it in the optimal set-up window, but we didn’t have that Friday, so it was a struggle.
“On the other hand, Lando with the old package looks to be happier, so some things to analyse there and to double-check because it hasn’t been a good Saturday for us.”
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The lack of running also means Sunday’s GP will be somewhat of a lottery, as Carlos understands how his car is behaving.
“It’s a trip into the unknown,” he declared. “with the extra unknowns of the new package and not knowing very well how it’s working, or where is it good or bad. So let’s see.
“We need to double-check everything and try to put together a good plan for tomorrow, but today I guess it’s been a bit of a struggle.”
As for Norris, he was simply disappointed not to at least split the Renaults ahead after feeling very much at home in his McLaren.
“I’m happy with what we did as a team, it’s just P8 – eight just sounds like a big number for my liking!” he said. “We were expecting maybe a little bit more coming into qualifying.
“I think we had a very good start to the weekend – well, it’s only been today! – but P3 was pretty good and we started with a good balance and I was feeling a lot more confident than what I was in Sochi, which was the whole aim of today.
“I was trying to get myself in a better position, feel better with the car and I think we did that.
“[For the race] we need to see what the weather does,” Norris added, “if the heavens open up, if it rains, whatever it is.
“But it’s going to be tricky with the temperature, with the cold conditions and so on. So we’ll see what we can do, but I’m sure either way it’s going to be a fun race.”
