Lando Norris believes that McLaren and Ferrari having two equal drivers is an advantage that will help both to reel in Red Bull’s championship advantage in Formula 1.
Red Bull has continued to be the benchmark in the nascent rounds of the 2024 season, but Ferrari and McLaren have taken a win each from the opening seven races.
An upgrade package in Miami helped Norris to claim his maiden F1 victory, while the Briton also pursued Max Verstappen to the chequered flag at Imola last weekend.
But while Norris thinks the Woking-based squad is now in a position to put increased pressure on Red Bull, he has tempered expectations concerning a title challenge.
Asked about his and McLaren’s championship chances this season, Norris expressed: “I mean, I’m what, 60 points behind Max. So, I mean, it’s a long, long way to go.
“I’m definitely not thinking of it and it really doesn’t change anything. We’ve not thought about it at all over the last four weeks.
“It’s just you concentrate on getting a good result and things just play out for themselves. So we’ve definitely put ourselves in there.
“I mean, we lost a lot over the first couple of weekends. So that’s hurt us, but we’re still a third of the way through.
“So there’s plenty of opportunities for us, and we know we still have some things coming in the future.”
However, Norris is convinced that McLaren and Ferrari boasting two drivers who tend to be close on the timesheets could be an advantage as it converges on Red Bull.
While Verstappen overcame Red Bull’s practice struggles at Imola to convert pole into the win, Sergio Perez exited in Q2 and trailed home 54.7 seconds back in eighth.
“If things turn around, then we can easily start to come back at some of the teams, you know,” Norris continued.
“So, especially because I think we’re probably the team, along with Ferrari at least, where we have two cars up there performing at every single session and every single race in qualifying. So I think if you look at a lot of the grid, they don’t really have that yet, they have one guy who’s put in a mega lap and then has a good race and the other one not so much.
“So I think one of our strengths is that we’ve always had two cars up there and we can fight well along with Ferrari, so if we keep doing that then for sure we can stay in it.”
Meanwhile, Oscar Piastri, who is 48 points behind Norris in the standings as it stands, reckons that an assault on the title will be unattainable for McLaren this term.
Asked whether he is convinced McLaren is in contention for the ultimate prize in 2024, Piastri replied: “I don’t think so this year. I think it’s going to be very, very tough.
“I mean especially for the Drivers’ Championship for me. I think I don’t even know where I am. I’m a long way behind. So I’m not focusing on that at all.
“I think in the Constructors of course it’s you know possible to mount a challenge if both of us are scoring good points week in week out.
“But again it’s been two weekends that we’ve been able to fight for a win. We need to make sure that we can do that consistently first.
“And if you do that, then naturally the championship kind of starts to come towards you. So we’ll focus on being quick first and then we’ll see what results we can get.”
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