Lando Norris believes people are wrong to underestimate Ferrari’s speed amid their ongoing battle for third in the Constructors’ Championship against McLaren.
Ferrari secured pole position at the last two races in Monaco and Baku, before out-pacing McLaren during qualifying in France on Saturday.
Ferrari currently leads McLaren by two points in the standings in third place, with both teams having already pulled out a sizeable lead over the rest of the midfield pack.
With the Italian outfit resurging after a disastrous 2020 campaign, Norris believes it is clear that the team has made sizeable improvements over winter.
“The past two weekends they have been extremely fast because they have a very good car,” Norris said.
“A lot of people underestimate them for some reason and still think that they have a terrible car. And [they] don’t expect things, but Ferrari have made a lot of improvements since last season.
“They are one of the best cars in certain types of corners, and they are extremely fast. There is nowhere where they are particularly bad, they are decent in the straights and still fast in the corners.
“People should expect more from them. We don’t want to come into this weekend expecting to be miles ahead of them or anything. We know that they are very fast.”
Norris ended Saturday’s qualifying session four-tenths down on the leading Ferrari of Carlos Sainz, with the Briton reiterating that the Maranello squad’s pace is “not a surprise”.
“Of course we are hoping to be a little bit closer than we were, but that was more that we were a little bit slower than we were hoping, and not that they were much quicker than we were expecting,” Norris said.
“[It’s] not a surprise from our side. Obviously tough because we want to be ahead of them. But we have a good opportunity [on Sunday] to try and claw back a couple of positions and get some points.
“It has been a trend. I think that Baku and Monaco were expected because those are the types of corners, slow speed, where they are extremely competitive.
“I’m sure that we can get it back and we are going to have some stronger performances still to come in the future.”
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