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Lando Norris feels McLaren needs to make two big steps to be on the level of Red Bull after finishing sixth in the 2024 Bahrain GP. His teammate Oscar Piastri recorded an eighth-placed finish.
Norris recently signed a contract extension with the team and will be part of the squad in the long term. The team put together a very impressive comeback in 2023 when a major mid-season upgrade skyrocketed the car's performance. Norris ended up scoring multiple podiums in 2023 and propelled the team to finish P4 in the championship.
The 2024 F1 season was supposed to be another step in that direction from McLaren. However, in the first race of the season, the team seemed a step behind where it was at the end of last year. Red Bull is well ahead of the pack, while Ferrari and Mercedes had the edge over McLaren as well.
Talking to the media, including Sportskeeda, after the race, Lando Norris felt his team needed to make one big step to close the gap to Ferrari and then another to move closer to Red Bull. He said:
“I think when you look at yesterday, they weren’t obviously ahead, I think Charles [Leclerc] had the quickest lap, so maybe between them they can battle a little bit and I think that’ll be good for everyone. Still, the race pace is where Red Bull are so strong and so dominant, and Max [Verstappen] is so dominant."
He added:
“But there’s a big step between us and Ferrari on a circuit like this, and then another step from Ferrari to Red Bull, so we’ve got two big steps to make up, but starting with one will be good. To Ferrari, yes, and again, there’s certain tracks we’re going to do it, certain tracks we’re not as we change more things.”
Lando Norris feels Ferrari is clearly ahead of McLaren
On being asked if Max Verstappen was on a completely different level compared to everyone else, Lando Norris joked that this was not the case. He opined that Bahrain and the conditions were more favorable to the opposition as was evident in the manner in which Ferrari and Red Bull performed. He said:
"I mean, they weren’t. Carlos [Sainz] was not far behind and they’re always very good on race pace, the Red Bulls, and this track, you need to be good on tyres because it’s so abrasive. So I’m thinking that Ferrari did a good job, Ferrari are also very strong here just as a characteristic. They’re clearly still ahead, that’s for sure."
Lando Norris and McLaren will get a chance to improve on their Bahrain performance this weekend at the Saudi Arabian GP in Jeddah.
