Lando Norris admits he’s “not so confident” that McLaren can repeat its recent podium exploits in this weekend’s United States Grand Prix.
After both McLaren drivers ended up inside the top three in Japan, Norris and team-mate Oscar Piastri followed that up by securing podium spots again in Qatar last time out.
However, Norris is wary that those headline results arrived on high-speed circuit configurations that have consistently played to the strengths of McLaren’s MCL60 car.
Therefore, the Briton, who is embarking upon his 100th Formula 1 grand prix start this weekend, is anticipating a tight battle behind Red Bull at the Circuit of the Americas.
Asked if he was confident McLaren could replicate its Qatar pace at the Austin track, Norris said: “Not so confident, lots of slow speed corners which is not our strength.
“We know at these kinds of circuits Mercedes will be very strong, Ferrari, Aston [Martin].
“We knew we’d be strong at Qatar, but with the slow-speed corners I’m definitely not as confident, but nevertheless, I’m not saying it’s going to be a bad weekend.
“I think we can still fight. It’s just going to be a much bigger fight than we think.”
Despite recovering to third, Norris rued potentially missing out on a win after having both his lap times in Q3 deleted for exceeding track limits, leaving him 10th.
Norris also lamented a mistake in the dying embers of the Sprint Shootout that allowed Piastri to pip him to top spot, paving the way for the Australian to clinch victory.
Questioned on whether he would alter his approach to avoid a repeat of the track limits fiasco that hampered his victory hopes in Qatar, Norris replied: “Not much, the margins are so small. The thing which made it all worse is that I should have been on pole on both, I say both occasions, but at worst I should have had a first and second.
“When I realised what could and should have been, I felt there were a lot of missed opportunities on my side.
“There have been plenty of other races where I haven’t made mistakes and I felt like I have performed very well, but the ones that get picked up are the bad races,” he added.
“It happens to everyone, I’ll try and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
McLaren’s substantial 47-point haul in Qatar enabled the side to close to within only 11 points of Aston Martin in the battle for fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship.
But Norris has also set his sights on reeling in Ferrari, who endured a troublesome weekend that saw Carlos Sainz ruled out before the race with a fuel system problem.
Sainz, though, is optimistic that Ferrari will be able to protect its 79-point buffer across the remaining five rounds, despite conceding McLaren currently has a stronger package.
“I think if we don’t have any more DNS or DNFs, I think we should be able to keep them behind,” Sainz asserted.
“That doesn’t mean I don’t think they will beat us in most of the races from here until the rest of the season if all things align.
“They do have a very quick car now, and they look to be the only ones that can sometimes bother Red Bull; unless it’s a track more like Singapore where maybe it’s a bit more us.”
Sainz adds that he and Norris have already discussed their teams’ respective chances this weekend.
“I was playing golf with Lando yesterday, we were discussing whether they will be ahead this weekend, if we would be ahead in the quali or race,” he added.
“But basically we don’t know, so let’s see tomorrow.”
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