Lando Norris identified Ferrari as McLaren’s biggest concern ahead of qualifying for the United States Grand Prix, despite Red Bull winning the sprint race.
Max Verstappen scored a lights-to-flag win from pole position in the opening race of the weekend at the Circuit of the Americas. Norris ran second to him until the final lap, when he was passed by Carlos Sainz Jnr’s Ferrari. But Norris believes his car is quick enough to rival Verstappen.
“I didn’t think I would ever be able to get Max,” said Norris. “We’ve been struggling a bit all weekend, so my chances of getting Max were tough, but I did the best I could to manage my tyres and things like that.
“But at the end of the race, the Ferraris were another level comparing to us. So I did my best to try to hold on, but there was pretty much zero chance I would ever hold on to second place today. So I’m happy, from fourth, we moved up.
“We put up a good fight, but we just don’t have the pace this weekend. So maybe some changes to make into qualifying and for the race tomorrow. But we’re not on the same level as, I think maybe similar to Max, but the Ferraris we are quite a chunk behind.”
Norris indicated he will take advantage of the opportunity to adjust his car’s set-up before the race to improve how it treats its front tyres.
“Once the front tyres are gone, you’re quite slow,” he explained. “We didn’t get a lot of practice, we didn’t get a lot of running in FP1, and it’s hard to judge everything all in one go.
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“With the Tarmac being different and bumps being different, it’s hard to optimise the setup. So we’ll review everything and see what improvements we can make.”
McLaren brought several upgrades for their car this weekend. Despite being unable to replicate the dominant performance he showed in the previous race, Norris is convinced the team’s changes have made their car better.
“I’m very happy we brought updates here, otherwise I’d be even further down the grid,” he said. “No, the team have done a good job to get the bits here.
“We’ve had some great races lately, like Singapore and other places, but everyone thought we were easily and way far ahead of everyone. And clearly we’re not. Even if you go back to Baku and things, both Red Bull and Ferrari were quicker than us.
“We’re close but even when I look at the data comparing to yesterday, we’re a long way off what Ferrari…
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