McLaren “not doing a good enough job with what we have”

McLaren driver Lando Norris says that the team are not making the most of the resources they have after their frustrating start to the 2023 season.

The team suffered a dismal opening race in Bahrain. Despite only just missing out on Q3 in 11th on the grid, Norris suffered a pneumatic leak which led to him pitting six times on his way to finishing two laps down in last place while team mate Oscar Piastri retired early with an electrical problem.

Norris admits the team needs to do a better job with the resources it has and points to the development of teams such as Ferrari and Aston Martin in recent seasons as proof that McLaren can make significant progress in the years to come.

“Where did I want to be? It’s clear, but where we all want to be is clear: we want to be towards the top,” he said.

“I think that’s everyone’s dream, it’s every team’s dream in the whole grid but when you’re realistic, it’s between where we are now and those top four teams currently. So I think what Aston have done is this clear example and what Ferrari did between ’21 and ‘22 was a clear example of what we need to achieve and want to achieve. And it’s clear that it’s achievable. So we’ve just got to go out and do it.

“I think we have the people, we have so many things that we need. We’re not doing a good enough job with what we have but we all know that and we know that we have some more things coming but at the same time, we have to do better than what we’re doing currently.”

However, Norris dismissed any suggestion that the McLaren was in the midst of a crisis. “No, it’s far from that,” he insisted.

“Everyone makes it sound a lot worse than it is,” Norris continued. “And calling it ‘crisis’ is far from that at all and it’s nothing close to it.

“We’re confident we can get some good points, I would say, this weekend. I think it’s a close fight with Alfa [Romeo] and a lot of those teams. Towards the top four teams, it’s a very big jump. But I’m confident we can be in that fight. I don’t think we’re that far away.”

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Following multiple car problems for both him and Piastri in Bahrain, Norris is confident his team has got on top of the failures and has no reliability concerns heading into this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

“Oscar’s problem was an issue that we’ve had the first time we’ve seen in years and years and years, so [we’re] confident that’s…