After the 2024 Chinese GP, McLaren’s Lando Norris expressed his surprise at how he was able to outpace the Ferraris. Even pre-race, the Briton had an intra-team bet that the SF-24 would be faster than his MCL38. This did not sit well with 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg, who questioned Norris’ mentality and approach to a race.
Rosberg believes that Norris needs to back himself more. As quoted by GP Blog, the former Mercedes driver said,
“Lando is a little bit a glass-half-empty guy. Pre-race betting that Ferrari are going to beat them? I don’t know, I don’t think that’s the best approach in general. I think more positivity would be helpful.”
Rosberg also revealed how in the past, he offered to help the McLaren driver improve his mindset. That is not to say that Rosberg took anything away from Norris’ P2 finish at the Shanghai International Circuit. The German driver lauded Norris’ consistency and ability to manage the tires which was better than his teammate Oscar Piastri on the day.
Lando Norris sets Constructors’ Battle up with Ferrari in China
Lando Norris qualified in pole ahead of the Sprint race in China but a mistake on the first lap limited him to a P6 finish. Following that session, however, Norris did not put a foot wrong for the rest of the weekend.
For the Grand Prix, Norris qualified in P4 and went on to finish second behind Max Verstappen, setting up a battle with Ferrari for P2 in the Constructors’ Championship. McLaren is 55 points behind Ferrari at the moment and the Woking-based outfit will be looking to cut it down even further in the races ahead.
At the upcoming outing in Miami, McLaren is set to bring its first upgrade package of the season. Team boss Andrea Stella revealed that their performance will increase but more importantly, their tire-wear woes will be solved too.
After China, McLaren believes that the MCL38 is far more balanced than it was in the first four races of the season. Hence, the result in Shanghai was the right impetus for the team to mount a challenge to Ferrari.
