Lando Norris may already be stirring the pot with his comments during the F1 Japanese GP weekend. The Brit stated that more than the car itself, McLaren’s strength lies in its very tight driver pairing — himself and Oscar Piastri.
Even with just two races completed, the Woking-based team has already emerged as a favorite for both championship titles. Already in Bahrain, the car proved more competitive than its rivals, a performance confirmed first in Australia with Norris’s win, and then in China with his teammate’s victory.
While the closest contenders still have things to fix, the papaya team is cruising, currently leading both the constructors’ and drivers’ standings, with Norris at the top. But even with a slight advantage, no one can afford to let their guard down in a season that has just begun.
“I’m sure we’re strong on every track at the moment,” Lando Norris told the media. “But we’ve seen over the past week and a half people saying they don’t think they’re that far off. As much as Max can talk… I mean, his last stint in China was very strong. Not quite at our level, but much more competitive. Fred Vasseur said he believes Ferrari should be up there with us. They beat us in the Sprint and qualified ahead of us, so we’re just slightly in front.”
“We’re the strongest pair, Lewis has to learn”
That led to the bold statement from car #4. “People like to say this because we’re the only team with two good drivers right now,” the #4 driver said. “That’s the big difference. If one of us were doing a lot worse, or wasn’t as strong…”
“You’d see that much more often, like it happens with Ferrari and Red Bull. Max is up there, and the other driver is much further behind, so I think the fact that we have two good drivers is honestly making the biggest difference.”
“The fact that we have two good drivers who push each other makes a bigger difference than people expect or give credit for.”
Given the apparent bluntness of his remarks, Norris was later asked to clarify whether he believes McLaren has a stronger driver pairing than Red Bull or Ferrari. The Brit then spoke about what he thinks is the biggest difference between his team’s duo and Ferrari’s.
“Ferrari obviously has the experienced side with one driver who knows the team and have been with the team for a long time,” Norris explained. “Lewis is new at Ferrari. He’s openly saying he’s still learning how to use the steering wheel,” he added – “So will he be able to extract every single bit from the car, compared to what Oscar and I can do? No. I mean, he’s openly admitting it, you know? So, it’s not that I think I’m much better than Lewis or Charles, because I’m not, and I’ll always be the first to admit that.”
“But I think the way we work as a team is better than any other team. I also agree that we’re better than any other team at pushing each other and getting the most out of each other as drivers, so I think that’s our advantage.” – the McLaren driver concluded.
That’s how Lando Norris wrapped things up, with ambitious words that could very well stir emotions among many F1 fans.
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