McLaren driver Lando Norris has had a decent start to the first half of the 2022 Formula 1 season, scoring points in 10 of the first 13 races.
In an interview carried out by the F1 official website, Norris admits that despite there being many season “highlights”, the one which stands out for him was claiming the unexpected podium at Imola, where he finished third.
“For myself and my driving and so on, I’m happy,” Norris said. “Some good highlights. I don’t know how I got a podium in Imola. It just blows my mind.
“With the car that we have, that’s quite some achievement, so [it] still makes me smile now, but then there are still a lot of positives.”
‘A lot of work’
Norris currently sits seventh in the Drivers’ standing on 76 points, while McLaren is fifth in the Constructors’ championship and a mere four points off fourth-placed Alpine.
“It’s just now we have a lot of work to do” the Brit continued. “The gap to the guys ahead is still massive, and I guess yes, it’s close on Saturday, but everyone is closer on Saturday; even last place is a lot closer. It’s just the spread on Sunday is bigger than what it has been in past, and we’ve got to work on that.”
With reference to the current summer break from F1 racing, Norris said: “I’ll enjoy my break first, and then we will work on it and see what we can do for next time. I think reasonable start to the season, so I I’m happy with it.”
Lando Norris
Constant improvement
For McLaren, the opening few races were tough as the car seemed to lack the pace of the likes of Ferrari and Red Bull, but things have been consistently improving, and Norris credits the hard work by the team to get them up to fourth in the Constructors’ standings.
“I think the main thing is that, of course, we just didn’t come into the season as strong as we needed to,” said Norris.
“How we’ve done since then, since the first the race, I think has been very good and strong. Considering we are still fighting for fourth in the constructors against a team which has been a lot more competitive since day one shows how good of a job we’ve done in many other areas.
“Our consistency, reliability in many ways, pit stops, strategy, a lot of things have been very strong. Just we didn’t start as well as what we wanted, but I think we’ve made some good progress since then, so as long as we continue to do that after the break, then I’ll be happy.
“But it’s just been tough, you know – you always want to fight for more and fight for higher positions, and the gap we have to the top three teams is still a big one, so we just need to focus on closing that down. “
To get The Undercut delivered to your inbox, you must be logged in to your free News24 profile.
Once you’re registered, go to ‘My Newsletters‘ under your profile and search for The Undercut under the Sport category.
Sign up at no cost and browse through a range of News24 newsletters to choose from.
