“Our Pace Was Really Strong Today”: Lando Norris Optimistic for 2024 After Opining McLaren Was at Par With Red Bull in Melbourne

Lando Norris stood on the podium for the first time this season at the 2024 Australian GP. After a hard-fought race that saw him in contention with the Ferraris for almost the entirety of the race, his MCL38 just came short of Grand Prix glory. However, in hindsight and seeing the pace they had in Melbourne, the 24-year-old remains optimistic about the season to come.

After the race, Norris said, according to an X (formerly Twitter) post by McLaren, “We made improvements into this weekend. Like Oscar said – Our pace was very strong today. For us to compete against the Ferrari which I would say were probably the quickest out there. We’d have been probably similar to Red Bull today. I think it was a very good sign.”

Throughout the race, both Oscar Piastri and Norris were right on the tails of the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and the eventual race winner, Carlos Sainz. While the #55 driver made a considerable gap to the chasing pack into the race, Leclerc was always a target for the McLaren duo to catch and pass for position.

Initially running third, Piastri was asked to move over for his teammate, Norris later in the race. And while the Australian driver kept himself within a two-second margin to his teammate, who was chasing Leclerc, a mistake cost him around 4 seconds and ruined his chances to be on the podium for his home Grand Prix.

Irrespective, the pace the MCL38 showed in the race puts McLaren in a very good position for the remainder of the season as it finally looks like Red Bull’s rivals have closed the gap to them.

After a decent start to the season, Lando Norris is eager to end his Grand Prix curse

With his podium-winning performance during last week’s Australian GP, Norris now holds a very unwelcome record of having the most number of podiums (14) but no Grand Prix win. His teammate on the other hand at least has a Sprint Race win to his name which he earned during the 2023 Qatar GP weekend.

Naturally, this winless streak has been playing on Norris’ mind. At the Australian GP weekend, a fan even heckled the Briton when he yelled at Norris asking, “When are you going to win a race, Lando?” The #4 driver seemingly wasn’t having any of it as he flipped the fan the bird.

With the MCL38 now seeming like a contender for Grand Prix wins this year, the 24-year-old would be eager to put his drought behind him and win at least one race before this season ends.