"We need to get back to where Ferrari are" - Lando Norris confident of bright future with McLaren

Lando Norris is confident of a bright future with McLaren, who hope to get back to the level of Ferrari and other top teams.

McLaren provided stern competition to Ferrari last season, and the battle for P3 was decided in the last race at Abu Dhabi. This season, though, Ferrari have taken a big leap forward and are among the frontrunners, but McLaren are stuck in midfield.

Talking about the team's target for next season, Norris said that McLaren would want to return to winning ways. He told motorsport.com:

“It's not just a me feeling; everyone in McLaren wants to win and wants to fight back, and make a lot of progress every weekend and every month and every season. I think everyone feels it, and everyone still has a lot of faith in the team."

Norris continued that everyone at McLaren is working hard to get to the level of Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes, saying:

"Everyone is working extremely hard to understand everything and trying to put in those steps that we need to get back to where Ferrari are, and where Red Bull are, and where Mercedes are. So I don't think it's changed anything."

He added that he's looking at a bright future with McLaren, saying:

“I'm still looking forward to the future massively with McLaren. And yeah, there's always going to be just tough places and tough parts of the season, or tough seasons, and this is one of them."

Sounding hopeful of a bright future, Norris continued:

"It's frustrating at times, because you feel like you put in some good laps, and you feel disappointed that you're only P6 or P10 or whatever it is. But I don't think that changes or takes anything away from what I believe we can do in a couple of years."

Norris has been one of the standout drivers this season. He's P7 in the championship and has scored the bulk of points (100 of 129) for McLaren.

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Mercedes and Red Bull have found better solutions - Lando Norris

Lando Norris said that he wasn't expecting McLaren to take a step back but applauded Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes for coming up with better solutions to the new regulations. He said:

"I didn't come into this season expecting us to be on the podium every weekend and fighting maybe not for top steps, but fighting for third and fourth and fifth. I wasn't probably expecting that every weekend."

He continued:

"It's always hard, especially when it's a new car, new era of cars to know exactly what's going to happen, and people are always going to find much better solutions, like with Red Bull not porpoising and not bouncing anywhere near as much as other people, Mercedes with their car."

The Briton is coming off a very impressive P4 finish at the Singapore GP last weekend. He will hope for a similar outing at the Japanese GP in Suzuka this Sunday.