Lando Norris is feeling confident ahead of the second Formula 1 race of the season in China, but expects to see a stronger performance from the competition, particularly from Ferrari.
Is McLaren going to pull ahead of the field again this weekend in China, or will the team face more competition in Shanghai? The season opener in Melbourne last week went perfectly for Lando Norris, who took pole position and won the race with ease – including the fastest lap.
The fact that it was still close at the end against Max Verstappen was due to the circumstances of Formula 1, because McLaren had already built up a lead of around 17 seconds by the time the safety car came out after Fernando Alonso’s accident. “I hope we can do even better and that it will be a bit easier,” says Norris ahead of the second race of the season.
The Briton is approaching the weekend with confidence, but also emphasizes that McLaren cannot be sure that things will go as well again. After all, the competition could have an even bigger say in the outcome than in the season opener.
Above all, Norris believes that Ferrari did not realize its potential in Melbourne. “We expected to be at the front. But we thought that Ferrari would be significantly faster than they were,” he says about qualifying.
There, Ferrari had only taken seventh and eighth places behind the surprises Yuki Tsunoda and Alexander Albon. “I think they were seven or eight tenths behind us. But they are definitely not seven or eight tenths slower,” emphasizes Norris. “There wasn’t a single session – neither FP1, FP2 nor FP3 – in which they were so far back.”
The race simulations also indicated that the Scuderia would be closer to McLaren than the competition. “In fact, Ferrari’s race pace on Friday was almost better than ours. So we were a bit surprised,” said Norris. “I’m sure they don’t understand why they were so far behind either.”
“But it just shows how difficult it is. It can be so easy to have good results – and just as easy to suddenly have the opposite happen,” he says.
There’s always room for improvement
McLaren, on the other hand, had a ‘great race’, even if not everything went smoothly. The start, for example, was not perfect from the point of view of the championship leader. In addition, the car was extremely difficult to drive at times.
“We know that Max was just as fast as we were in certain conditions, especially in the wet. We were a little better in the dry. So it’s about making the car a bit more predictable and comfortable,” he says.
But the balance was still right: “Especially in this phase, when you really need to understand the tires and know how much you can push – you need a well-balanced car, especially on a drying track, so that the tire degradation is evenly distributed and not just at the front or rear. That’s exactly where we were very strong in the middle of the race.”
Therefore, Norris emphasizes: “I can’t really complain. The car is at a good level.”
A strong teammate helps
Of course, there are a few things he and teammate Oscar Piastri are unhappy with. “That gives the engineers at the factory a clear direction of what to work on,” he says. “The car is great, but we always want more.”
Speaking of Piastri: Norris sees having the Australian at his side for the third year as a good advantage. ”It definitely helps to have a strong teammate to learn from. Not many teams have that – two drivers who can really rely on each other and learn from each other.”
“We’ve both been at McLaren for a while, and that makes a difference. So it’s not just about the car, but also about two drivers working well together, rather than just one.”
