Lando Norris admits it’s sometimes tough to fall short of his own expectations with McLaren – but the Briton isn’t discouraged by that
In the 2021 Formula 1 season, McLaren spearheaded the midfield and secured fourth place in the constructors’ championship by a wide margin. This season, the team from Woking is having a much harder time. With five races to go, Alpine is breathing down its neck, just four points behind.
Lando Norris finished on the podium four times last year and in the top five ten times in total. In 2022, the Briton has only managed this three times – most recently in fourth place last weekend in Singapore. His only podium came in third place at Imola in April.
But Norris stresses: “I didn’t go into this season expecting us to be on the podium every weekend or fighting for third, fourth and fifth places. I probably didn’t expect that every weekend. “
Norris: “Everyone at McLaren wants to win “
“It’s always difficult to say. Especially with a new car, a new era of cars, you can never know exactly what’s going to happen. Some people will always find better solutions, like Red Bull, who don’t suffer from as much porpoising or bouncing as others, like Mercedes.”
Those big differences, Norris is convinced, will narrow in the coming years. “And everyone will get much closer together,” the Briton said.
At the same time, he admits, “You’re always a little disappointed when you expect something more than what you achieve. But I think everyone in the team has that feeling, not just me. Everyone at McLaren wants to win and fight back and progress every weekend, every month and every season. “
“Huge excitement” for future with McLaren
Even if it’s not yet working out with the consistency they’d like, everyone still has “a lot of confidence in the team”, Norris insists. “And everyone is working extremely hard to understand everything and try to make the steps we need to get to where Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes are.”
He said he himself was not discouraged by the mixed results either: “Nothing has changed for me. I’m still really looking forward to the future with McLaren. There will always be difficult periods, or difficult seasons like this.”
“And yes, it is tough. Sometimes it’s frustrating because you feel like you’ve done some good laps and you’re disappointed that you only finished sixth or 10th or whatever,” Norris said. “But I don’t think that changes what we can achieve in a couple of years. “
