Lando Norris believes McLaren has “absolutely” taken a step forward with its 2024 Formula 1 car, the MCL38, but admits the team is a “long way” behind Red Bull and Ferrari.
Norris sustained his best season to date last term, scoring seven podiums after a mid-season evolution of the MCL60 transformed the Woking-based squad’s prospects.
Remarkably, after the 2023 summer break it was only runaway title-winner Max Verstappen who outscored Norris, heightening expectations on McLaren for this season.
Although Norris believes the team has made progress with its latest car, the Briton accepts that McLaren’s gains will stand relative to what the competition has done.
“Do I think we’ve taken a step forward? Absolutely,” Norris told media including Motorsport Week during Friday’s press conference during the Bahrain pre-season test.
“Do I think we’ve made a lot of things better? Yes. But you never really know in the end of the day where we stand comparing to others. I think we’re in a good position.
“We had a decent car at the end of last season and I think we’ve definitely taken some steps in the right direction, but I think still quite a long way behind Red Bull, sorry, a very long way behind Red Bull and a long way behind Ferrari still.
“So plenty of work for us to still try and achieve, but also plenty of things that we’ve learned over the last few days for us to implement before next week.”
The mood is a stark contrast compared to this time last year, in which McLaren encountered issue after issue in testing and the race in Bahrain, as the team started the season on the back foot.
“I think the issues we’ve had over the last few years were just lack of preparation and knowledge of certain things,” Norris said.
“This year I think we’ve definitely been a lot more prepared in every area so I’m very happy about that and the team have done an excellent job to get everything ready and not have any faults.”
Still, Norris has had some interruption to his race runs, both on Thursday evening and latterly Friday morning when a loose drain cover hampered running.
“Not exactly what I wanted,” Norris said. “But there’s still plenty of things learnt and a lot of stuff that I wanted to get done.
“The whole outlook from the team is in a much much better position. I think we’ve definitely come into this season, this test and this year on the right foot for once I don’t think we’ve done that really at all the last three, four years.
“I think we’ve come in with much more knowledge and expertise and just a much better car to start a season off with.
“I’m excited and I’ve been since the very beginning of at least starting the year in a good position and then seeing how we can transform things because I think we obviously did a very good job of that last year.
“The team have done a good job. I’m very happy with what they’ve done and there are more things to come.”
Conclusion: Verstappen will continue winning all races, with Checo in second provided he can control the voices inside his head. Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren will take turns on the rostrum, with eventual guest appearances of Fernando and Daniel. The championship will have been decided end of August at the latest.
I’ll be back in 2026!