Lando Norris believes that catching and overhauling Ferrari in F1’s Constructors’ Championship is “doable” for McLaren given team papaya’s current form.
McLaren currently sits fifth in the Constructors’ standings, but big points garnered in the last three races – including two consecutive double podium finishes – have allowed the Woking-based outfit to reduce its deficit to Aston Martin to 11 points with five rounds to go.
But reeling in third-placed team Ferrari which is 79 points ahead is in the realm of possibilities according to Norris’ bold view.
“It’s doable. I think so,” said the McLaren charger.
“A couple of races ago it was, 70-something to Aston. I mean, Fernando [Alonso] said we were overconfident as well!”
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McLaren’s progress since last June has been nothing short of remarkable, with each step in its development programme adding performance to its MCL60.
But Norris believes that the team also owes its spectacular progress to its improved execution as ut demonstrated last weekend in Qatar where McLaren achieved in 1.8s the fastest pit stop ever recorded in the history of the sport.
“I think we’re just doing a good job, not just in terms of pace but today we had a 1.8-second pit stop which is pretty impressive from the guys,” Norris explained.
“They’ve been working extremely hard so to reward the whole team consistently is only more motivating and a bigger boost every weekend.
“They like the taste of success. It’s the first time they’re getting it consistently and I think that only makes them want it more and more and more every weekend that we’re doing so the guys are doing a great job. I think we’re both [the drivers] doing a decent job too, so we’ll keep it up.”
Norris pushes back on the perception that he is overconfident when asserting McLaren’s short-term potential and insists that past performances – achieved most recently on two circuits, Suzuka and Lusail, that suited its car – re not an indication of future results.
“We know that Mercedes are very quick, probably as almost as quick as us today, just they keep making mistakes,” he said.
“So I’m sure if they have a clean weekend they will maybe make our life a bit more tricky and therefore I’m not as confident in saying it.
“But like I was comparing to Ferrari, it was only three weekends ago that Ferrari were on pole and almost winning races and nothing has really changed, it’s just a different track. We’re looking better, they’re looking a bit worse.
“I think we’re definitely not overconfident. We’re confident, I think we need to be, but we know there’s still going to be some races where we’re not going to be quite as strong.”
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