Norris hopes McLaren can be competitive ‘everywhere’

Jamie Woodhouse
Sparks fly from Lando Norris' McLaren at the Bahrain GP. Sakhir March 2021.

Sparks fly from the back of Lando Norris' McLaren during the Bahrain Grand Prix. Sakhir March 2021.

With seven rounds to go in the 2021 campaign, Lando Norris hopes there will be no more weak tracks for McLaren on the calendar.

While their main battle is still with Ferrari over P3 in the Constructors’, McLaren have enjoyed some fantastic results at the top of the standings in recent races.

At the Italian Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo led home a McLaren one-two, a result very much achieved on merit after a solid display for both Ricciardo and Norris in Sprint Qualifying the day prior.

There were then further heroics at the following round in Russia as Norris took pole position on a drying track and was leading the race until the closing stages, at which point heavy rain fell and caught out the Briton, leaving him to finish P7.

Turkey hosts Round 16 of the 2021 season, after which the United States, Mexican, Sao Paulo, Qatar, Saudi Arabian and Abu Dhabi GPs remain before the campaign concludes.

The venues vary in the challenges they pose, and will likely create some shifts in the pecking order.

But while picking out locations like the United States and Mexico where Norris hopes McLaren can be strong, he remains hopeful of good pace at all remaining races, since Russia for example was not expected to suit the MCL35M.

Lando Norris defends against Lewis Hamilton in Italy. September 2021.
Lando Norris defends his position against Lewis Hamilton at the Italian Grand Prix. September 2021.

Stand out from the crowd with McLaren merchandise via the official Formula 1 store

“I hope everywhere. I think places like America will be good for us,” he told Motorsport.com when asked where of the remaining venues he hopes McLaren can be strong.

“Abu Dhabi was good for us last year, but this year maybe not so good because they are changing the track layout. So for us, it’s maybe not so good.

“In Mexico, I think we can also be quite strong, but it’s so difficult to know. I guess in Russia we maybe didn’t expect to be as good as we were, and maybe at Zandvoort we didn’t expect to be as bad as we were.

 

“So even now, so late in the season, we are still learning about the car, we are still learning what makes it fast and what makes it slow. And what we can learn from that for 2022, for next season, on how can we make sure we are just not slow and always fast.”

 

Horner wary of McLaren’s 2021 progress

 

Horner wary of McLaren's 2021 progress

Christian Horner is wary of McLaren's progress but expects them to do well in upcoming races.