Lando Norris rebuffed Fernando Alonso’s “silly” suggestion that McLaren is “overconfident” for believing that it can overhaul Aston Martin in F1’s Constructors’ Championship.
After hitting the ground running at the start of the season and upholding its momentum until the summer, Aston began a slow regression as its performance dwindled while its rivals gathered pace.
From second in the standings, Team Silverstone has fallen to fourth, while McLaren’s results have gone crescendo.
Thanks to a pair of sold outings in Singapore and in Japan, the Woking-based outfit now sits 49 points behind its rival. And Norris believes that his team’s current run of form could see it catch and overtake Aston.
Alonso acknowledged team papaya’s current strength but suggested that beating Aston to fourth in the championship was a reflection of McLaren’s overconfidence.
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“Every weekend we see ups and downs for everybody,” commented the Spaniard on Thursday in Qatar. “They were very strong before the August break – in Austria, in Silverstone
“I think they were both [Norris and his team-mate Oscar Piastri] close to being on the podium in Silverstone and then in Zandvoort we were on the podium and they were struggling a little bit.
“So, it's good if they are overconfident. Let's see if we can beat them in Abu Dhabi [2023’s final race].”
Upon learning of Alonso’s comment depicting McLaren as “overconfident”, Norris took exception with the F1 veteran’s characterization, and suggested the Spaniard was just trying to stir up some controversy, as usual.
“He says that we're getting too confident? How many points did we catch last weekend [in Japan]? Quite a few,” Norris replied.
“Over 20, I think [it was 29]. So, unless his math is deteriorating, which it definitely isn't... Fernando is just Fernando – he's always going to say things.
“He always makes himself look very good or makes other people look bad. He's very good at that.”
Norris was adamant that McLaren was anything but “overconfident” in its assessment of its potential.
“But I don't think we're overconfident in any way. I think we're the last people who have ever been overconfident in saying anything. Especially myself.
“But I thought we were a lot more points behind, so for us to be then 49 [back] with six races still to go [and] two cars performing well – they struggle at the minute to have two cars up there in Q3 [or] up there at the end of the race – then I would say it's silly for him to think the opposite.
“But he's a smart guy, he's not silly in any way. So, I'm confident we can do it just because if we can have more P2s and P3s and things then, yeah, just of course it's possible.”
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