Ferrari and McLaren spent much of 2021 leading the midfield teams and becoming the best of each other in the constructors’ championship behind Red Bull and Mercedes.
Ferrari scored 13.5 points ahead of McLaren in the battle for third place in Mexico, but it was AlphaTauri who led the midfield when Pierre Gasly finished the race in fourth place.
AlphaTauri is now level with Alpine in the battle for fifth place in the constructors’ championship, but is 149 points behind McLaren in fourth place.
When asked if he believed AlphaTauri would become an undesirable variable in the battle for third place against Ferrari, McLaren driver Norris said: “They have been all season.
“There have been a lot of races where they were way ahead of us and some where they were way behind us. They had good weekends all year round, they were very competitive.”
Norris admitted that he was surprised to see such a big gap between McLaren and AlphaTauri in the standings and that the team had never ignored the threat posed by Gasly and teammate Yuki Tsunoda.
“I’m surprised they are not nearly as close as they should be in terms of the constructors’ points because they had a very competitive car all season,” said Norris.
“They’ve always been there or something. They’re considered for qualifying and races most of the year. We never canceled them for any reason.”
“They are there, they will probably make our lives more difficult, which does them justice. But hopefully we are up this weekend.”
Pierre Gasly, AlphaTauri AT02, Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF21 and Antonio Giovinazzi, Alfa Romeo Racing C41
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Ferrari has managed to win the battle for third place in its favor in recent races and has enjoyed a buildup in form since the introduction of its improved power unit hybrid system.
Both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz believed that McLaren would have an advantage over Ferrari this weekend.
Norris said he “thought it would be the opposite at Interlagos” but knew the fight would remain close.
“It’s getting tight, it’s getting tight,” said Norris.
“I don’t think it’s going to be convincing in any way, hopefully it isn’t anyway. But Ferrari has been the stronger team lately, they were the guys who were consistently ahead in qualifying and in the races.
“If you look at the stats lately you would put them at the top. But we work hard. We did a lot of reviews from Mexico and so on.
“If we look back here two years ago, we had a pretty decent car and Carlos was on the podium and so on. So we are hopeful and confident that we will have a good weekend here.”
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