Lando Norris, Who Earns $20,000,000 at McLaren Rues Driving a Car That Is “7th or 8th Quickest”

Lando Norris experienced a weekend full of contrasting emotions in Barcelona, but after it ended on a sour note, he wasn’t particularly kind-worded towards the situation at McLaren at the moment. Norris feels that their performance shows that they aren’t a team fighting for points. Instead, the Briton feels that they are a backmarker.

Norris had an incredible qualifying session on Saturday, where he finished P3 behind Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz. Holding on to a top-three finish was always going to be difficult, but Norris didn’t quite predict just how quickly his race would go downhill. He made contact with Lewis Hamilton on lap 1, which forced him to pit for a new front wing.

LAP 1/66

Contact between Hamilton and Norris around Turn 2 💥

Norris has to pit immediately for a new front wing #SpanishGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/Y5zD8NGNbi

— Formula 1 (@F1) June 4, 2023

Norris rejoined the grid in the last position, and despite his best efforts, finished P18. This was a disastrous result, especially considering where he started from. After the race, he wasn’t particularly happy about the car, calling it the “7th quickest or 8th quickest” on the grid.

Lando Norris is stuck with a team that isn’t able to score points

Ahead of the 2022 season, Norris signed a long-term contract extension with McLaren. This deal will see him stay in Woking until the 2025 season, at least, where he will be paid $20,000,000 a year. When he signed the deal, McLaren seemed like a team that was headed in the right direction.

Unfortunately, their progress was derailed with the onset of new regulations last year and Norris has struggled to find his way to the top of the grid. As reported by Forumu1a.uno, Norris described McLaren as a ‘backmarker’ team, that struggles to score points.

“Obviously, lap 1 cost us everything,” he said. “But at the same time, it would have been unlikely to finish in the top 10 today,” 

Talking about the upcoming race in Canada, Norris admits that he doesn’t expect anything different. In fact, the 23-year-old won’t be surprised if both he and Oscar Piastri finish out of the points.

“Nothing different. We’re probably the 7th quickest car, or 8th quickest car. We’re not even fighting for points at that rate.” 

No one at McLaren knew why they did well in qualifying

Norris’ performance on Saturday was definitely the biggest surprise of the Spanish GP race weekend. However, after their horror outing in the race, no one in the team sounded surprised. Piastri, who started 10th and finished 13th, stated that the outfit got a harsh reality check on Sunday, which showed them their true pace.

Team principal Andrea Stella felt that the weather conditions and Norris’ rivals underperforming allowed the young Brit to secure P3. Norris, meanwhile, wasn’t sure about what happened on Saturday.

Positives and lessons to take away from Spain as we look towards Canada. 💬 @OscarPiastri pic.twitter.com/Wf7RZJ7Zao

— McLaren (@McLarenF1) June 5, 2023

“Today is the pace we’ve had all year,” he said after the race. “Yesterday was just, I don’t know, an unknown special day for us. It was as expected today.”

Currently, Norris is 11th in the drivers’ standings with 12 points to his name. In the team’s championship, McLaren is P6, 33 points behind 5th placed Alpine.