Lando Norris is encouraged by the progress McLaren has made at the start of the new season and expects more wins in the races to come.
He finished fourth in Bahrain behind Mercedes drivers and Red Bulls Max Verstappen. Sergio Perez finished fifth in the other Red Bull after starting from the pit lane.
Norris said the first race of the season shows that McLaren has closed the gap with the top two teams since last year.
“We still finished before Perez, although he had a few problems and might have been a little higher,” said Norris. “But we qualified better before him because [although] He didn’t make big mistakes, he just couldn’t put it together.
“We’re close. We are not far from Mercedes and Red Bull compared to last season. I think we’ve pretty much closed the gap and hope that we can close even more on some tracks. It’s good.”
AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly outperformed both McLaren drivers but failed to score after damaging his front wing in the battle against Daniel Ricciardo. Norris admitted that his rival’s early setback had masked how great the threat to this team could be in the future.
Analysis: The F1 field is closed as Mercedes loses two seconds in four months“It’s hard to tell if we’re easily the best of each other,” he said. “We don’t know what the AlphaTauri’s pace was like.”
McLaren switched from Renault to Mercedes this year and, due to the lower number of tests before the new season, had little opportunity to prove the installation of the new hardware. Norris believes the team can still make a profit in this area.
“I think the car is good. It showed a lot of good points, some bad points and things that we clearly need to work on, both from the engine and from the [power unit] Side of things. And that’s not easy, but there are some free lap times, let’s say, and things that make our life as drivers a lot easier. Then we can do better.
“I think we have a bit of work to do on Saturdays, probably more than on Sundays. But on Sundays there is still a lot to do and to make the car even faster. “
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F1 season 2021
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