Lando Norris points out Alpine’s flaws this season as the French team leads McLaren by just 24 points in the 2022 Constructors Championship.
Lando Norris is the only driver outside of the top 3 teams – Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari to have stepped on the podium so far. The Briton finished P3 in the 2022 San Marino GP.
But the lone podium does not hide a flaw McLaren has been lagging in. The team currently are losing the fight for 4th place in the constructor’s championship to Alpine.
Alpine and McLaren have shared a bitter rivalry this season. After the Oscar Piastri fiasco, the two teams are battling it out on track to finish the season as ‘best of the rest.’
So far Alpine have had the better car. The A522 has proved to be much faster on the straights compared to McLaren’s MCL36. And this has given the team a better rank in the table so far.
However, Norris is unimpressed by Alpine being ahead of McLaren by just 24 points in the table. He believes the difference between the two should have been much more as the French team are far quicker on track.
He said, “Alpine has been ahead of us since pretty much day one of the seasons. It’s maybe three or four races this season where we might just have been a little bit quicker than them. Otherwise, they’ve been a bit of a better car.”
He concluded by saying, “So for them to just be ahead of us in the championship is more of: we’ve done a very good job and they’ve done a pretty bad job.”
Also Read: Lando Norris hits out at Daniel Ricciardo amidst his $16.7 Million contract termination
Lando Norris says Alpine have missed many good opportunities
Norris might have achieved the only podium amongst the two teams. But overall, Alpine has had a more consistent set of results. And their superior pace can be reflected in their Qualifying stats.
The Alpine drivers Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon have Qualified for Q3 on 12 and 7 sessions in the first 15 races so far. Meanwhile, Lando and Daniel Ricciardo have achieved the same only 9 and 5 times respectively.
Norris agrees that their Qualifying results alone are enough to show how much better the French team’s car is at the moment.
He said, “When you see the margins of qualifying from them to us, and sometimes their pace in the race compared to us sometimes, it’s never that much the opposite way around. So they have a better car.”
But Alpine missed more chances that could have resulted in one-off podiums. Like in the 2022 Australian Grand Prix, where Alonso could have started on the front row but suffered a valve issue and crashed out.
Norris said, “They have just done a worse job throughout the season and made more mistakes. They’ve had more problems with the car. Fernando was in Australia for P2 or P3 in qualifying and we were miles away. So yeah, they’ve had a better car and they have pretty much all season.”
However, Alpine is looking more likely to claim 4th place this year. McLaren has been suffering from a lack of points partly because Ricciardo has not been able to deliver results.
The $20 Million a year earner has scored 82 points and is currently 7th in the Driver’s championship. Compared to his teammate, Ricciardo has only scored 19 points from 5 races.
Alpine has been more consistent and scored 34 points in the last 3 rounds alone compared to McLaren’s 12. So apart from having a slower car, maybe a lack of consistent results has hurt McLaren more this season.
Also Read: Mark Webber accuses Alpine of exaggerating $11.5 Million investment on Oscar Piastri
