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Lando Norris Thinks McLaren Isn’t on the Same Level as Mercedes and Alfa Romeo

McLaren has been experiencing a lot of peaks and valleys this year in Formula 1, going from failing to compete for any points in Bahrain to securing a podium finish at Imola. It’s almost as if they’ve yet to fully understand their car, which would explain why the MCL36 looks competitive on certain tracks but not others.
McLaren F1 driver Lando Norris 7 photos
Photo: McLarenF1 / Twitter
McLaren F1 driver Lando NorrisMcLaren F1 driver Lando NorrisMcLaren F1 driver Lando NorrisMcLaren F1 driver Lando NorrisMcLaren F1 driver Lando NorrisMcLaren F1 driver Lando Norris
In last week’s Miami Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo couldn’t finish higher than P13 while Lando Norris was forced to retire following a collision with AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly. After the race, Norris stated that even if he hadn’t retired, it would have been unlikely that he’d finish any higher than P8, given the pace of the Mercedes cars, as well as Valtteri Bottas’ Alfa Romeo.

Still, Norris is hoping to see improvements in Barcelona but is aware that his team needs to find more performance in order to consistently battle Mercedes and Alfa Romeo, as reported by Motorsport.

“It’s tough to know exactly what we’re going to do from this weekend. We’re behind Mercedes. We’re behind Alfa Romeo. But we’re in a good fight with Alpine and AlphaTauri. I think that’s quite simple,” said the young British driver.

“Haas are there or thereabouts with us as well. So, it’s close. I think that puts us around fifth, fifth-fastest or sixth or something. We have decent pace. We just need a little bit more to be able to, say take the fight to the Mercedes and the guys ahead. And then we can be happy if we do that.”

Meanwhile, team boss Andreas Seidl acknowledges that his outfit is still trying to figure out the core weaknesses of these new cars, looking for things that would explain why McLaren struggled so badly in Miami and Bahrain, while performing quite well at Melbourne and Imola.

Despite the inconsistency, McLaren are fourth in the 2022 Constructors Standings with 46 points, trailing only Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes.
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About the author: Sergiu Tudose
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Sergiu got to experience both American and European car "scenes" at an early age (his father drove a Ford Fiesta XR2 supermini in the 80s). After spending over 15 years at local and international auto publications, he's starting to appreciate comfort behind the wheel more than raw power and acceleration.
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