McLaren driver Lando Norris doesn’t feel the start to the year is as bad as articles on the subject suggest. According to the Briton, expectations were high in the first place, while luck also eluded the team.
During four Grands Prix, McLaren’s most routine driver scored twice, and seeing this, many people rated the start of the year as weaker than expected – especially after the team leaders made several statements indicating that they had not been able to prepare for the championship. season as they wish.
Norris has indicated several times in the previous weeks that he disagrees with these comments, despite the fact that he himself was not entirely satisfied with the first weekends (before Paco, for example, he talked about how they should have started the year. innovations that have just been implemented).
“We’re not doing badly, but you keep writing about it.” – mocked the journalist when he started talking about the beginning of the year and the current state of McLaren. “It was hard (to get started) and we weren’t so lucky either. In Bahrain, I probably should have finished 10th, and then we’d already have a point at the start of the year.” – Added the young pilot, who was hampered by technical errors at the opening of the season.
During Norris’ statement, he also tried to point out that their position is currently more difficult because Aston Martin has caught up with the three leading teams, so there are fewer and fewer positions available for chasers who pay well on points. “Now there are eight cars that perform in other leaguesDon is.
“Sometimes another car is very fast, like in the Alps in Australia. In Baku we were also fast in qualifying, we got close to Mercedes and then on Saturday the distance is even bigger. There are eight cars there (at the front of the field), so eight spots are already gone– hinted that the chasers can usually fight for a maximum of 9th place (finished here in Baku).
“There was an exit in Bahrain that looked a lot worse than it actually was. Our pace wasn’t too bad in Saudi Arabia. We might not have been competitive, but then the front wing was damaged on both cars. You’re right about that, it looks catastrophic.”– he completed.
As for McLaren’s current position, the team is fifth in the table after four weekends, well behind the aforementioned “Big Four” but well ahead of Alpine, which might be surprising given the pace. True, the French team received a serious “slap” in Australia, where both drivers fell out of the points-scoring position – as a result of a collision.
Lando Norris (Photo: XPB)
