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Shots Fired: Lando Norris Unimpressed With Alpine This Year, Thinks They've Done a Bad Job

McLaren and Alpine are still fighting it out to see which of them is “best of the rest” in Formula One, trailing only Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes, in that order. Recently, the French outfit has been performing somewhat better than McLaren, although their lead in the Constructors Standings isn’t that big.
McLaren F1 driver Lando Norris 8 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 NorrisMcLaren F1 driver Lando Norris
Alpine leads McLaren in the standings by 24 points and with more upgrades coming their way, that lead might grow a bit more. However, according to Norris, McLaren have done quite well to be this close to Alpine considering their rival’s form as of late.

“Alpine has been ahead of us since pretty much day one of the season and generally have been ahead of us,” said Norris, as quoted by Motorsport. “It’s maybe three or four races this season where we might just have been a little bit quicker than them. Otherwise, the majority, and quite easily the majority, they’ve been a bit of a better car.”

“So, for them to only just be ahead of us in the championship is more of: we’ve done a very good job and they’ve done a pretty bad job.”

The British driver even thought back to Australia where Alonso could have started on the front row if there hadn’t been any issues with his car – just an example of the ways in which Alpine have been derailed.

“When you see the margins of qualifying from them to us, and sometimes their pace in the race compared to us sometimes, it’s never that much the opposite way around. So they have a better car. They have just done a worse job throughout the season and made more mistakes. They’ve had more problems with the car.”

Next up on the calendar is the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, where Norris finished second last year, behind his soon-to-be former teammate Daniel Ricciardo.
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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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