Britain’s Lando Norris believes his McLaren team are on a roll as they step up to become the leading challengers to Formula One’s 2023 champions Red Bull. After the team secured a double podium at the Japanese Grand Prix he is confident they are making real strides toward the leaders and alongside his teammate Oscar Piastri have one of the best driver pairings on the grid.
Norris said after he and Piastri took second and third at Suzuka that the team can catch Aston Martin to claim fourth place in the Formula One constructors’ championship despite having endured a woeful start to the season.
The team are enjoying a major resurgence and their form of late suggests they could now be the second quickest team in the field behind the dominant Red Bull. It has been a remarkable transformation for McLaren, who had started the season well off the pace and admitted they had failed to hit the aerodynamic targets they had been hoping for with their car.
Having struggled in the opening half of the season including failing to score in the opening two races, the team’s first major upgrades applied in Austria and then further developments at the last round in Singapore have proved enormously successful.
The 23-year-old Norris has scored four second-place finishes since Austria, while his rookie teammate Piastri took his first F1 podium at Suzuka. It is the team’s first double podium since Monza in 2021 when Daniel Ricciardo won with Norris second but that was a contest where they were aided in their task after Max Verstappen hit Lewis Hamilton ending both their races.
McLaren’s finish in Japan – while 19 seconds behind Verstappen, who won and with it secured the constructors’ championship for Red Bull – was entirely deserved on merit, their car showing real pace.
They trail Aston Martin, who started the season very strongly, by 49 points with six meetings remaining. The Aston lead was thought to be unassailable but with recent results Norris now feels they are within striking distance.
When asked if he thought they could beat them, he was unequivocal. “It’s 49 points, I definitely think so,” he said. “There are not many races left. I’m sure there’s going to be a couple where Aston are going to be a bit stronger. But I think our advantage at the minute compared to almost every team, bar a couple, is we have two drivers who are up there fighting for these positions and fighting for points and not every team has that at the minute.”
Certainly McLaren has a superb driver pairing where at Aston the points have been largely scored by the double world champion Fernando Alonso. His teammate Lance Stroll has been unable to match the Spaniard all season. Where Alonso has returned seven podium finishes Stroll, the son of the team’s owner Lawrence Stroll, has managed a best finish of fourth and has finished outside the points or retired seven times.
Norris and Piastri in contrast are repeatedly returning solid finishes. “That’s helping us,” Norris said. “We can help one another, we can use one another, and I think that’s a good advantage we have over a lot of other teams at the minute. So we’re on an upward trend.
“I know there’s going to be maybe some tougher races coming up at times, maybe not as straightforward as in Japan but the progress we’ve made this season has been pretty incredible from my eyes and from where we were, to finishing 19 seconds behind the lead is evidence of exactly that. I’m proud of everyone and we’ll keep pushing.”
Despite the differential to Red Bull, Norris even felt they really were beginning to rein in the world champions. “We’re pushing, we’re getting there,” he said. “The progress we’ve made is pretty outstanding. Like I said, I’m very proud of the team, and the steps forward we’re making every weekend.”
The next round is at Qatar in two weeks, where Verstappen will wrap up the drivers’ title in the Saturday sprint race if he scores just three points.
