F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Norris says 'closer' Williams now within midfield battle

McLaren's Lando Norris believes his team will need to factor in Williams as a midfield contender this season.

Sir Frank Williams' outfit is determined to put behind it its last two dismal campaigns when the championship hopefully kicks off later this year.

The Grove-based squad is relying on its improved 2020 FW43 design to finally pull itself up the grid, and Norris believes Williams will be successful in its enterprise.

"I think Williams are much closer," the Mclaren charger told Autosport. "They're within the battle, basically, so we need to think about them.

"It's not like we don't have to include them on our strategy, or choose when to pit around them.

"Now we have to include them, and we're going to be racing them. It's not going to be easy to pass them.

"We just have to be a bit more aware there's another team now involved.

"Apart from that, I think it's not too dissimilar to how it was last year."

Like his colleagues, Norris was impressed by the performance in pre-season testing of Racing Point's RP19 whose designer Andy Green has taken his cue from championship-winning Mercedes 2019 W10.

"From pre-season testing, straight from the off, they looked very competitive," Norris admitted.

"They just have a car which performs well everywhere. I think they're just going to start all the weekends off very well.

"It's difficult to know how much they were showing what they could do and so on, or how much they started showing maybe too much, so then they held back more towards the end.

"They're either going to be a long way ahead, or they're within the battle, or maybe just in front. I'm not too sure.

"Compared to last year, they've taken a big step forward, but it's obviously clear why."

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Michael Delaney

Recent Posts

Marko: ‘No chance at all’ for Red Bull in Las Vegas

Helmut Marko believes that Red Bull and Max Verstappen are unlikely to challenge for victory…

10 hours ago

GM revives bid to join F1 with accelerated talks for 2026 entry

Automotive giant General Motors is reportedly back in the game as a potential entrant in…

11 hours ago

Las Vegas GP: Thursday's action in pictures

The opening day of running at the Las Vegas GP was a smooth but chilly…

12 hours ago

Williams' headaches persist into Vegas practice

Williams is continuing to fight uphill battles this weekend in Las Vegas as a knock-on…

14 hours ago

Ferrari's Sainz 'not satisfied with where we are' in Vegas

It was a solid start to the Las Vegas weekend for Ferrari with Carlos Sainz…

15 hours ago

Norris labels McLaren long-run pace ‘shocking’ in chilly Vegas

Lando Norris didn’t hold back in his assessment of McLaren’s performance on the opening day…

16 hours ago