How costly has Lando Norris’ lack of Japan F1 track time been?

McLaren’s Lando Norris says that a lack of practice mileage hampered his Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix qualifying, though he admits he also “underdelivered”.

The reigning world champion completed only 17 laps in FP2 and then 13 in the crucial FP3 session, after technical issues kept him in the garage at the start of both.

Having not done all his planned homework, Lando Norris went into qualifying facing a few unknowns, and that was reflected in his final position of fifth, 0.277s off team-mate Oscar Piastri in third.

“I mean, it's a mix of things, it's not just that,” he said when asked by Crash.net if the lost track time meant that he was playing catch-up.

“It's also that I've tried more things with the setup, with the car, and understood more things. It's also that.

“It's hard to quantify that amount, but I certainly have been playing catch-up the whole weekend, and even for tomorrow, I've done no laps of high fuel, I've done no continuous laps.

“Luck's not been on my side so far.”

He continued: “I feel like I was getting better and better in qualifying and understanding how I can push the car more.

“So yeah, it's been difficult. I'm happy with a P5. The gap is still quite big to the guys ahead.

“So it's not like I'm totally satisfied. I think there are things I should have done better, and I didn't do well enough. But otherwise, I'm sure with more laps I could have, I would have improved.”

He admitted that he could have done a better job at some corners of his quickest lap.

“There were certainly some places as the grip went up, I felt like I just underdelivered, and I under-drove,” he said.

“When I improved in some areas, and I needed to do more lifting here, and more harvesting here, whatever it may be.

“And if I just done more of those laps prior in the weekend, I would have understood some of those things ahead of time.

“It's just so, so difficult. There's so many things. It's hard to quantify what and where and how much.

“But yeah, if you ask anyone, would you have wanted more laps? They're not going say, no. It's the way it is, and I feel like we still made a good job of what we wanted this weekend.”

Norris agreed that lost track time is potentially more costly in 2026 than previously because of the experimentation that teams and drivers have to conduct with energy management.

That was exacerbated at Suzuka by resurfacing, which means the track behaviour has changed compared to past years.

“Yeah, 100%, a lot more,” he said.

“And it's obviously still a new car, and it's a new track where the tarmac is a lot grippier here.

“It's new tarmac as well. It's a much quicker track, so you have to drive the car quite differently to how we've driven the last few years.

“You've seen how many mistakes people have been making, into Spoon and things with the rear, and it's just not easy.

“So certainly now it costs more than before, not just as a driver, but also to understand how the power unit works, to get the battery in the right way, and then you have to lift more in places, what you have to then adjust with the set-up, because you have to lift more.

“There's a lot of little things. So, yeah, it's certainly not all of the gap today. Some of it's just me not being on top form, but it's certainly cost more nowadays.”