Norris sees 'lots of positives' from McLaren engine switch

Lando Norris believes that McLaren's switch from Renault to Mercedes power units for 2021 will give the team a big boost in this year's championship.

McLaren picked up two podiums on its way to successfully clinching third place in last year's constructors standings, finishing two places and 21 points ahead of the French manufacturer's works squad.

Norris says that his team should be even stronger this season after its switch to engines provided by world championship winners Mercedes.

• Read also: Norris eager to learn from Ricciardo rather than worry

"I think all round it's a better package," Norris told Motorsport.com. "It's more power. Touch wood it's more reliability. And it's a slightly better-fitting package.

"Just as a whole, there's a lot of positives about it," he continued. "[But] I'm sure there's going to be some things we have to understand and we're not going to be quite as natural.

"We have a good relationship with Renault, so things are very smooth now and we know them, and there's going to be a lot of new things," he added. "I'm not into everything, so I'm sure there are maybe some negatives there.

"There's going to be some things which are a bit trickier, but as a package it should be much better. That gives us good confidence it will take us that little bit further towards the top."

While it's all change in the engine department, the rest of the car will be pretty much the same as last year's MCL35 as implied by the minimally-tweaked new model number MCL35M.

"With the tricky car that we had and the struggles and the positives and negatives, there's still many things we need to work on," Norris stated.

"I guess the good thing with having bad things with the car or negatives is that you can try and work on them and try and turn them into positives.

"it will make the car quicker, and that's a good thing," he added. "It's not like we have an amazing car which is slow, and we don't know how to work on it. I think we know the direction we need to work in.

"It's just very difficult to unlock it and find those things, he acknowledged. "That's probably why you see in the last two or three years, teams have been very similar.

"Although you're spending however much money, it's just not easy for engineers to figure out these exact things which can be millimetres of difference," he said. "Everyone in the factory to continue working hard and developing the car into next year."

Norris will have another big change to get used to, with the departure of Carlos Sainz from the team and the arrival of Daniel Ricciardo from Renault as his new team mate for 2021.

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