Over the course of the 2023 season, Lewis Hamilton has often expressed his concerns with Mercedes’ car. At the start of the season, the Briton explained how the Silver Arrows have failed to meet expectations because they did not bother to listen to him. Soon after, he on various occasions explained how the car felt “terrible“. Although the seven-time champion has repeatedly complained about Mercedes’ car this season, Lando Norris still believes that the Silver Arrows are the second most “consistent” team this season.
At the start of the season, Hamilton made headlines when he demanded “accountability” from the Mercedes team. While speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live’s Chequered Flag podcast, the 38-year-old said, “It’s about owning up and saying, ‘Yeah, you know what? We didn’t listen to you. It’s not where it needs to be and we’ve got to work“.
A few months after, Hamilton explained (as quoted by gpfans.com) how the car felt “terrible” in Hungary despite putting it on pole. Despite the Mercedes driver’s repeated complaints, Norris still believes that McLaren have a lot of work to do to become as “consistent” as the Silver Arrows.
“Mercedes still remains the second team” for Lando Norris
In an interview with RacingNews365, Lando Norris explained why he believes that “Mercedes still remains the second team” for him after Red Bull. The Briton acknowledged that while McLaren have made a “great step forward” this season, they have been nowhere as “consistent” as Mercedes this campaign.
“Just look at Mercedes, in my opinion, they are the most consistent team of 2023 after Red Bull. It may not always look that way, but they have never been very slow. During the season they have actually always been faster than McLaren,” explained the 23-year-old.
Norris believes that the Silver Arrows can perform well on any circuit while McLaren just has a few tracks where they have done remarkably well. This is the second time this season that Norris has pointed out how quick Mercedes have been this campaign. The previous time he did so was when he took a jibe at Lewis Hamilton.
Norris cannot understand why Hamilton has complained so much this year
During the Hungarian GP weekend earlier this year, Lando Norris explained how he believes that Lewis Hamilton has unnecessarily made excessive complaints about the pace of the Mercedes car this season. “I know Lewis complains a lot about how amazing our car is and how bad theirs is. But they don’t have a bad car and they haven’t all season,” explained the 23-year-old during the post-race press conference.
max: honestly i felt sorry for u in the first few races ☹️
lando: some people are like .. u know like yesterday lewis complained how tough it felt finishing outside 1st position? try racing in 19th and 20th 🤣 pic.twitter.com/8jU1QtJ35z— nini (@SCUDERIAFEMBOY) July 23, 2023
During the same press conference, Norris launched another jibe at Hamilton by mocking him for complaining about how difficult it is to finish races “outside first position“. Hence, the 23-year-old wants his compatriot to start a race in 19th or 20th, something that he believes Hamilton has “never done in his life“.
