Lando Norris is guarded when it comes to picking a winner for this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix, but the McLaren driver nevertheless believes that Ferrari is well-placed to uphold in Montreal its winning Monaco momentum.
The landscape of Formula 1 in 2024 has undergone a shift in the last three races, with McLaren and Ferrari making significant inroads into Red Bull’s early season dominance.
While Norris prevailed in Miami and finished hot on Max Verstappen’s heels at Imola, Leclerc stepped back into the mix with a dominant display in Monte-Carlo.
However, the Principality’s bumpy street circuit and its prominent kerbs wreaked havoc on the handling and balance of Red Bull’s RB20, hindering Verstappen performance and limiting his result on race day to a lowly sixth-place finish.
With the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve sharing similar characteristics to Monaco, Norris reckons that the aggressive kerbs located around the track could prove crucial once again in one way or the other depending on the car.
“How you take the kerbs simply plays a big role here. It will be pretty close again," Norris told the media in Montreal.
“For me it is impossible to say whether we, Ferrari or Red Bull will be in front at the end. That is what makes it so exciting.
“I would probably put Ferrari as the favourite because of their strong top speed. If you look at the car all around, I think their [Ferrari] car is the best fit for the track.”
Carlos Sainz is hoping the Scuderia will hold an advantage again over its rivals, but should that be the case, the Spaniard doubts its edge would be significant.
“At the same time, I don’t expect us to have the lead we had in Monaco,” he said. “It’s more of a normal track here in Canada compared to Monaco.
“On normal tracks, it’s just a very open playing field with Red Bull and McLaren, with Red Bull being the favourite most of the time.”
As for Charles Leclerc, F1’s popular victor on home soil last time out, the Monegasque was eager to downplay the hype surrounding Ferrari’s chances this weekend.
Leclerc dismissed the comments as mere pre-race tactics by his rivals destined to lower the pressure and expectations surrounding the latter.
“They always say that – whether it’s Helmut one weekend or Lando the other – nobody wants to go into a weekend and hear they’re the favourite,” Leclerc told Formu1a.uno.
“So you’ll never hear me say that we’re 100 per cent favourites – and it will be the same for them.
“You just have to throw the ball to the next competitor. That doesn’t have to be the real picture when we go out on the track.
“The reality is: we are so close together with these three teams, even with track characteristics like in Montreal, that it is very difficult to point the finger at the Ferrari now.
“It will be a question of who does the better job.”
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
