Lando Norris said he and his team were "shocked" Saturday qualifying is where his McLaren car struggles the most, with its drag reduction system relatively ineffectual.
McLaren have had a difficult start to the 2023 Formula 1 season, struggling to score significant points in the first three races. Chief executive Zak Brown had already admitted at the car launch that the team had missed development targets, starting the season off at a disadvantage.
Norris, alongside rookie team-mate Oscar Piastri, was able to capitalise on the chaos in Melbourne. Both scored their first points of the season, with the Brit in sixth place and the Aussie eighth to mark his first top-10 finish in F1 at his home race.
Yet, despite securing points, Norris still believes it will still be a while before the team can improve. He said: "It shocked us how bad we are with DRS and how draggy we are when we open DRS. Our straight-line speed is so poor, I think not having DRS helps us.
"We gain, I guess, a few kph, but some of the other cars gain 10-15 kph and it's a different ball park to us. So, Saturdays are a big weakness for us at the minute because, especially when you've got four DRS zones, it's not in our favour in any way."
Norris and Piastri will be hoping for a solution as quickly as possible so they can be more competitive. McLaren are set to bring upgrades to the next race in Azerbaijan with the aim of increasing their pace after struggling to keep up with their midfield rivals.
But Norris is not certain that a quick fix will do the trick when it comes to addressing the team's DRS issue. He added: "We understand it I think and were working hard to try and figure out how to make it better and more efficient and things like that.
"It will be a while before we can improve that too much so we're trying. But it's difficult when it's so tough on Saturday – it makes our life harder on Sunday."
With two qualifying sessions likely at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix this weekend, McLaren could be set to struggle in both. F1 chiefs are expected to confirm the Sprint format change at a meeting of the F1 Commission on Tuesday.
