Norris: McLaren 'a very long way' from where it needs to be

Lando Norris is keeping McLaren's expectations in check for this weekend's Dutch Grand Prix where the team will resume its tight midfield battle with Alpine.

Unfortunately, McLaren's pointless Sunday in Spa coupled with Alpine's double-top-ten finish delivered a 20-point lead in the standings to the French outfit ahead of this weekend's round of racing in Zandvoort.

An engine-related grid penalty was an immediate set back for Norris in Belgium while teammate Daniel Ricciardo was unable to put points on the board despite starting among the top-ten.

• Read also: McLaren eager to see new-generation F1 cars perform at Zandvoort

"I wouldn’t say [the race was] necessarily much worse than others," he said on Thursday at Zandvoort.

"I think we ended the first half of the season pretty well in Budapest, of course that gets your hopes up and you gain confidence – which is a good thing.

“[Spa] was made worse by having the engine penalty. I think I’d have finished in the points and in qualifying probably qualified seventh or so.

"It’s not like things are terrible, I think we’d have had a reasonable weekend by our standard; what made things worse is that Alpine performed well and made things harder for us."

While disappointing, McLaren's Belgian Grand Prix weekend did provide the team with food for thought, or a realty check of sorts according to Norris.

"Things like Spa are good for us because it makes us realise where we are, what we struggle with compared to other teams, and having that little realisation check is good for us because we are a very long way away from where we need to be," he said.

Zandvoort's fast and undulating layout is a different challenge altogether compared to Spa.

Norris inevitably reminded himself that the Dutch venue "was our worst track last year, so I’m not too hopeful – but I want to be more hopeful than I was in Spa."

"Hopefully we can claw back some points, especially because here it's just put as much downforce on the car as possible," he said, quoted by Motorsport.com.

"Here is a bit more like Budapest and Monaco, where you just put everything on the cars. So I'm hoping we can take a bit of a step forward again, and we can be a bit more competitive.

"I guess we still have a long way to go. But we're running out of time to make sure we're staying ahead of Alpine."

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