McLaren chasing perfection in Red Bull/Verstappen F1 battle

McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have admitted the team is chasing perfection in its aim to beat Red Bull and Max Verstappen in the 2024 Formula 1 season.

The Woking-based squad has become Red Bull’s most established contender this season since introducing updates in Miami which inspired Norris to his maiden win.

But while a McLaren driver has featured on the podium in the five rounds since that breakthrough success, Norris and Piastri have not added to that Stateside victore.

McLaren missed a chance to win in Canada with a rueful pit call under a Safety Car, while Norris lamented losing out at the start in Spain as he came home in second.

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Norris had lined up on pole position last weekend, but slipping behind both George Russell and Verstappen proved decisive as he came in 2.2s back from the Red Bull.

The Briton lambasted his efforts as he claimed he squandered a win with the “quickest car”, but has since accepted that he was too harsh with the margins razer-thin.

Asked how he unlocks the remaining one per cent to usurp Verstappen, Norris responded: “I don’t think there’s honestly like just an easy answer to it.

“Even like my start, my start was not a bad start. It was just like a couple of meters and not a perfect start.

“I think at the time, maybe I was a bit over critical on saying I had a bad start. I didn’t have a bad start.

“And even if my start was decent, I think George still would have passed me and if I was not, you still would have then questioned Max like he got passed by George as well.

“You know, it wasn’t just me but George wasn’t the factor of winning or not. It was Max. And it was the fact that Max got passed.

“So, typically my starts have been very good and, and very consistent and one of the best and up there with one of the best. But I want to be the best.

“So, just in every little area, you know, there’s all these little things, just a little bit more preparation or a bit more practice on Fridays or Saturdays and getting these things nailed down, but my starts have not been bad. Just Max had a slightly tiny, tiny better one and that tiny difference made the biggest difference in the world of actual finishing positions.

“So, honestly, I think I was probably a bit overcritical, you know, like I reckon if we just run it through the race again, it could easily be a different outcome.

“And it’s not with everything like, if I, you know, so many areas along a race where things can go wrong. I don’t think we need to overreact in anyway.

“Again, like I said then and after all the reviews we’ve done, I’m very happy with how, as soon as we got through Turn 1 and even the reaction in Turn 1, you know, I could have tried to be a hero and gone around the outside of Max and I only would have caused a crash and I would have ended up taking George out. So I think I was smart in doing that.

“And after Turn 2, everything was very good.

“Even our strategy, I know we’ve got a lot of criticism on strategy and stuff like that, but that’s from people who have no idea what they’re talking about.

“So I’m very happy and like 99.5% probably, I’m happy. Just a couple of meters off the line cost me last weekend.

“But for the same instance, if it was a shorter run to Turn 1, it wouldn’t have made a difference, you know.”

Meanwhile, Piastri has insisted that McLaren has never underrated the challenge that lies ahead in toppling a well-established operation like Red Bull across a season.

“I don’t think we ever underestimated how strong they are operationally,” the Australian said. “I think their pit stops have always been probably the best in the paddock.

“We’ve got the world record. But they’ve always consistently been incredibly strong on that. In strategy, they’ve always been very strong on that.

“So we knew that even if we had a car as quick as them, it was going to be tough to beat them. Which is proving to be the case, I guess.

“So, yeah, maybe some people underestimated just how strong they are everywhere. But we certainly didn’t.”