Lando Norris claims that his team ahead of the Imola race has managed to become the best of the rest team as they eye their season recovery.
McLaren had a tough start to the season. In Bahrain, they got a big blank, and in Saudi Arabia, only Lando Norris could get in points for his P7.
The Australian GP was a turning point, as both Norris and Daniel Ricciardo got in P5 and P6 respectively. Now, in Imola, in the sprint race, Mclaren yet again got a decent result- P5 for Norris and P6 for Ricciardo, amassing a total of seven points.
Now, McLaren ahead of the main race has a promising prospect. So, reacting to it, Norris claims that his team is probably the best of the rest presently.
“Now we are seeing more, that Bahrain was a little bit more of an outlier,” said Norris. “It was still a reality at the time. A lot of what we saw is still on the car, but we’ve just kind of understood it a bit more.”
“We’ve worked on the weaknesses and we’ve made some improvements. There are a lot of positives from it but I think we are comfortably third, I would say.”
Also read: F1 boss bashes George Russell for criticizing sprint races
Red Bull and Ferrari overwhelming for Lando Norris
The Briton race driver said that he couldn’t guess how much pace he would need once Ferrari and Red Bull of Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez started hunting him. Thus, this was the best result he feels he could have achieved.
Did the job today. In the fight tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/UBXg7p3uru
— Lando Norris (@LandoNorris) April 23, 2022
“It was just because of the guys I was next to at the start, it’s hard to judge your own pace compared to guys who are one and a half seconds quicker a lap.”
“Especially knowing where Carlos [Sainz] was, and then Sergio [Perez], I just tried to make the gap as big as possible but no matter what I did they still would have passed me,” added Norris.
Currently, McLaren stands at P4 in the constructors’ standings. A massive deficit lies between them of 34 points lie between them and Mercedes. But seeing the Silver Arrows struggling, McLaren could slash a significant portion of that by the time F1 teams leave Italy.
Also read: Why is porpoising resulting in disaster for Mercedes but not for Ferrari?
