Despite finishing outside the top five in Bahrain, Lando Norris believes McLaren will be more competitive at many of the coming circuits on the calendar.
After finishing sixth in yesterday’s season-opener, Norris said the Bahrain International Circuit has rarely suited McLaren’s cars. He expects to perform better at other tracks with more high-speed turns.
“In the conditions when the track was less grippy and a bit hotter last week [in testing], we generally were [thinking] Mercedes are ahead, Ferrari easily ahead,” he told the official F1 channel. “And I think Ferrari and Red Bull are down the road.
“But we surprised ourselves. We even had a chat after free practice two [saying] we’re looking a little bit better than we were thinking. So this was a good sign. I think if we can do that on the track we know is not our best, that’s a good sign of things ahead.
“Today we struggled again a little bit more with the balance, with the higher fuel, with the degradation. Things fell away from us, especially comparing to the Ferraris. But to fight a Mercedes was pretty cool so I’m happy with that.”
Although McLaren were by far the most improved team year-on-year in Bahrain in terms of single-lap performance, the team was in poor shape this time 12 months ago. Norris said their performance through the quicker corners bodes well for tracks like Jeddah, where they will race next week.
“If you look at last year it’s hard to know because we’re going back to a track where we didn’t have the upgrade last year, and the upgrade basically changed our lives.
“I’m more positive for this kind of circuit, especially when you look at turn six-seven here, turn 11, there were corners we were a bit better at relative to the rest. And you look at the last corner, turn one, turn 10. We’re just shocking. So, there’s less of them next week – maybe you’ve got the first chicane and the last corner – but I’m hoping there are more corners which suit us next week.”
He said he was “happy with sixth” having been frustrated at the error which cost him a higher starting position. “[Russell] wasn’t on an ideal strategy and we were closer to it. He boxed very early to probably protect from the undercut, so he was probably struggling a bit more, he was struggling more than I was at the end, but just not enough.
“I think our pace was too evenly matched between Mercedes and ourselves. Clearly, Ferrari and Red Bull are a different level from us…
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