Norris: McLaren 'deserved a lot more' in back half of 2021

Lando Norris says McLaren and himself "deserved a lot more" in 2021 after suffering a run of poor luck in the latter part of the F1 season.

McLaren enjoyed a strong first half of the year thanks mainly to Norris' consistent performances that saw the Briton deliver ten consecutive top-ten finishes.

The solid run anchored McLaren in third place in the Constructors' standings while Norris staked his claim for a place among the top four in the Drivers' championship.

But a bout of misfortune coupled with a few mistakes by Norris, including a costly first-lap clash with Carlos Sainz in Brazil, led to McLaren and its driver losing ground in the final leg of F1's 2021 campaign.

McLaren was eventually overhauled by Ferrari in the Constructors' championship while Norris dropped from fourth to sixth in the Driver's standings.

But the 22-year-old insists his team has done a better job than what its results reflect.

"Of course, I've made a couple of mistakes, Brazil for me the big one, that cost me," acknowledged the McLaren driver, quoted by Motorsport.com.

"But apart from there, we've just been very unlucky with the punctures, with problems and incidents, whatever.

"Just hasn't been the second half of the season we wanted. We deserved a lot more.

"I think the team have done a much better job than it looks like. And I feel like I've done a much better job than what it looks like, we just been unlucky, that's all."

• Read also: F1i's Driver Ratings for the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP

In Abu Dhabi, where Norris qualified an impressive third, the Briton - who had battled a gearbox issue early on in the race - looked on course to score a fifth-place finish when a puncture put paid to his efforts with just 10 laps to go.

"Some gearbox problems, I wouldn't say it really cost us anything, it cost me some time here and there, but didn't cost me positions, thankfully," Norris explained.

"But the puncture did, so the puncture ruined it really. Especially after the safety car we could have had a chance to at least fight Carlos, go for a P3 or a P4, and still a good chance I could have finished fifth [in the championship] as a driver.

"I feel like we did a good job to keep off [Charles] Leclerc, and I was doing a good job of that point to keep [Valtteri] Bottas behind me, and that was very important.

“And I'm confident I could have kept him behind me for the whole race. But yeah, we had to do one more pitstop for no reason, and that sucks."

Norris capped off his season with a final work session on Wednesday at Yas Marina onboard McLaren's mule car as part of Pirelli's tyre development program for F1's new 18-inch wheels.

Norris is excited about next year's prospects, but is also happy to sign off for a well-deserved winter break.

"It was really good to get a feel for the new tyres and understand more about how they work," he said.

"We’ve collected a lot of useful information over the last two days and this data will help us to work on things over the winter break and hopefully answer a few questions we had.

"There’s a lot of work to do ahead of next season, but I’m already excited.

"For now though, it’s important that everyone gets a well-deserved break after this long season."

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