Lando Norris admits McLaren ‘need more’ to challenge Ferrari, Red Bull consistently

Imola [Italy], May 17 (ANI): Ahead of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, despite his recent victory in Miami, Lando Norris feels that McLaren still needs to improve if they want to become a more reliable danger to Red Bull and Ferrari.

Norris took advantage of a mid-race Safety Car at Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix by making a swift pit stop and returning to the lead after showing strong speed on a weekend where the team had arrived with enhancements on the vehicle. He then proceeded to defeat Max Verstappen, the leader of the championship to win.

When asked if he was still overjoyed by his first victory in the build-up to this weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Norris said that his priorities had changed to trying to replicate that success again.

“I celebrated appropriately for the occasion, but it’s another weekend so I’ve got to make sure I’m prepared and ready to go. You still think of it a lot, I still think of it now,” Norris said as quoted by Formula 1.

“But at the same time, as much as you want to keep it in your mind, you have to turn your focus to the next weekend, to this one, and hopefully try to replicate a similar thing. [It was] an amazing weekend, one I’ll probably remember for the rest of my life, so incredible and [I] made the most of it. As much as I loved it, it’s now on to the next,” he added.

Even if McLaren’s improvements fared well at the Miami International, Norris thinks the team can perform even better at Imola.

“But we need more if we want to challenge Ferrari more consistently, if we want to challenge Red Bull more consistently. The team are doing a great job, they made some good steps and we have more things hopefully coming in the future, and those are what we need to beat them more often,” the 24-year-old said.

“I think we are just better suited to Imola, and potentially the upgrade a little bit as well. Imola has generally been one of our most successful tracks as a team and for me as a driver. We definitely took a step forward. From what I know, other teams have upgrades too, so I don’t think we’re getting ahead of ourselves. I know I’ve put good confidence forward to the team, I’ve said that we’re confident we can take steps forward,” Norris said.

“But I think I made it clear that we’re not going to be there every weekend. I was still sixth at the time and I was lucky last weekend with the Safety Car and the strategy worked out perfectly, but that’s how races go sometimes,” he added.

Even though he admits that overcoming the gap is “not an easy task,” Norris is optimistic about the Woking-based team’s ability to advance given their recent rate of growth.

“I’m not overconfident, I’m not underconfident – I feel like I’m at a good balance of accepting where we are, and I still think we’re the third best team at the minute, but that could change if we have another good weekend here,” the 24-year-old added.

“I’m confident with how the team are doing with our rate of development, which is better than any other team on the grid, that next year we can challenge a lot more often for wins, and in the big picture, hopefully challenge for a title,” he added.