Lando Norris Holds Onto Max Verstappen’s Struggle as a Sign of Hope: “It Wasn’t Like He Had an Easy One”

Max Verstappen has achieved prominence by capitalizing on Red Bull’s dominance, evident via his 56 Grands Prix victories and three world championships so far. Moreover, the Austrian outfit has started their 2024 campaign with back-to-back 1-2 finishes. While doing so, Verstappen remained at the top step of the podium, claiming victories in both Sakhir and Jeddah by a margin of over 22 and 13 seconds, respectively. Interestingly, amid his continued dominance, McLaren driver Lando Norris has come up to discuss the implications of the Dutchman’s performance in Bahrain on his team.

According to Motorsportweek.com, the Briton said that Verstappen’s dominance wasn’t a matter of concern for him. This is because, according to Norris, Red Bull invested a lot of effort in developing this year’s car. Therefore, they certainly would’ve been this fast. What Norris found interesting, though, was that he was rather happy with how close McLaren could come to Red Bull.

The #4 driver said, “Even in qualifying, you know it wasn’t like he had an easy one and was that convincing. You know they started their development on that car a long time before everyone else so you’re not surprised at all. But actually you’re surprised at how close you were and how close a lot of teams were.” 

Norris subsequently provided an instance to support his thoughts. He said that the difference between Red Bull and Ferrari would have been far smaller if Carlos Sainz did not get stuck trailing Sergio Perez during the middle stint in Bahrain. According to the McLaren driver, this is a major sign of hope for his squad and other teams.

Andrea Stella boosts Lando Norris’s aspirations with early development plans

Red Bull continues to be the fastest team on the grid and now that they are starting to gain an advantage even on the street circuits, the team is looking much more formidable. Ferrari and McLaren, on the other hand, are still trying to catch up to the Austrian squad. Interestingly, while Ferrari has gotten closer to Red Bull the most, McLaren appeared to be feeling the limits of their car in some areas during the Saudi weekend.

Considering this, McLaren team boss Andrea Stella recently spoke about the difficulties the team faced in maximizing the car’s strengths on various tracks. According to Motorsportweek.com, the Italian said that whoever had trailed McLaren in the first sector had lost ground. This happened because the MCL38 responds well to the fast-moving corner, where it is sufficient to execute the initial steer input.

However, according to Stella, the car begins to falter a ‘little bit’ when there are lengthy turns, like the final one. As a result, this prompts the team to lose time, which is exactly where teams like Ferrari are very strong.

Later, Stella added that keeping these issues aside, the battle remains about the development. While detailing it, he said that this development becomes very visible after your team comes with an aerodynamic upgrade.

While wrapping up, Stella mentioned that in terms of other things, a team can deliver from a mechanical or aerodynamical point of view, and, notably at the moment, McLaren has both in the pipeline. Therefore, McLaren will be delivering a few milliseconds’ worth of minor upgrades for the Australian and Japanese GP.