McLaren driver Lando Norris believes the pace of Red Bull – and Ferrari – means he stands no chance of contending for the podium at Formula 1’s Chinese Grand Prix.
Norris will start Sunday’s race from fourth place on the grid, behind only the Red Bull drivers and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, and ahead of the Ferrari drivers.
But Norris, who scored a podium in Australia, reckons finishing in the top three is beyond McLaren in China.
“No, no chance,” said Norris on his podium prospects. “The Red Bulls will probably lap everyone, multiple times! Ferrari, I think, will not be as quick as them but they’ll be close enough.
“I think they’re out of our league as soon as they had clean air this morning [in the Sprint Race].
“So yeah, not expecting anything surprising. I think we’ve done a better job than we thought in low fuel. But definitely in high fuel, like everything that we expect [to happen], happens. And I think that’s why we struggle so much.
“I still look forward to it. I think we can still have a good race, we can still fight for some good points and if we get lucky with some other things, it can still be a good day.”
Norris nonetheless reckons the qualifying result leaves McLaren in a strong position against expected opponents Mercedes and Aston Martin.
“I think we had a positive day for us in terms of pace,” said Norris. “Yeah, buys us a bit of leeway on the Ferraris, but more than likely they’ll be able to take us tomorrow. So I think we’re in a good position.
“I think our battle will be with the Aston and probably with the Mercedes at some point. So we’ll see, but today I think was a good day.
“Even with what happened this morning [in Sprint], I think our pace was, it was not bad. I think comparing to Mercedes, comparing to Aston, we’re in a similar boat.
“It’s just Red Bull are a mile ahead and Ferrari are another big chunk ahead of us. So with everyone else I think we’re there or thereabouts and should be a good race.”
Discussion about this post