1
McLaren's Lando Norris remains wary of Ferrari's possible improvement and fight back into the top three over the course of the season despite finishing on the podium last weekend in Austria.
Norris, who finished third to take his maiden podium last Sunday, managed to qualify both Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel for last weekend's season opener, with teammate Carlos Sainz qualifying just behind Leclerc in eighth.
Speaking at Thursday's press conference for the Styrian Grand Prix, Norris affirmed that despite the promising start for the McLaren team during last weekend's race, it is weary that Ferrari have the better overall package and will improve.
Norris also praised the team for the job they did to allow him to take his first podium on Sunday but concluded that the team must stay focus on the best job it can do and that any further podiums or high finishes.
Norris' podium in Austria marks the second podium for the team in three races, but the British driver remains unconvinced that the team are now up with the top three teams in terms of performance, citing more work and improvement from McLaren has yet to be done before this is a constant occurrence.
"I think it was a good start, I don't think we can put that into question," Norris said.
"But I think we can be only taking it one race at a time still. I think the midfield is very close. Ferrari still has a lot of strengths on which they have not been able to show as much so I think they'll come back into play a lot in the future races.
"But yeah, I think we just have given ourselves a very good platform to go off of and to see further improvements.
“I still believe Ferrari has a better car then what we do. As a whole package throughout the whole season, I don't think we're going to be consistently fighting for podiums or things like that.
"I think we need to focus on ourselves, do the best we can and if we can end up in positions like having podiums or P4 or P5 then I think it's a job well done for us but I don't think we can say we have the package as a whole to fight the top three very often."
Grand Prix of BelgiumLocal time
Grand Prix of BelgiumLocal time
Bahrain International Circuit - Winter testing
M. Verstappen
C. Sainz jr
C. Leclerc
Bahrain
Bahrain
Bahrain International Circuit
Bahrain
Bahrain International Circuit
Saudi Arabia
Jeddah Street Circuit
Australia
Albert Park
Japan
Circuit Suzuka
United States of America
Miami International Autodrome
Monaco
Monte Carlo
Canada
Gilles Villeneuve
Spain
Circuit de Catalunya
Austria
Red Bull Ring
United Kingdom
Silverstone
Hungary
Hungaroring
Belgium
Spa-Francorchamps
Netherlands
Circuit Zandvoort
Italy
Monza
Azerbaijan
Baku City Circuit
Singapore
Marina Bay Street Circuit
United States of America
Circuit of the Americas
Mexico
Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez
Brazil
Interlagos
United States of America
Las Vegas Street Circuit
United Arab Emirates
Yas Marina Circuit
51,389 comments on McLaren
17 members have this team as their favourite
Tweets about Lando Norris
489,267 comments on Ferrari 279 members have this team as their favourite Tweets about Ferrari
Replies (1)
Login to replycalle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Indeed, so they and RP should score as many points as they can now. But I do think Ferrari might be in for p4 this year with such a tight competition and a car what is draggy on the straights but slow around corners.