Suzuka — Formula One championship leader Lando Norris believes McLaren’s strong start to the season is the result not only of having the best car but also the best combination of drivers on the grid.
The 25-year-old Briton won the season opener in Australia and his Australian teammate, Oscar Piastri, took the chequered flag in China two weeks ago, with Norris coming home second to give McLaren a strong early lead in the team standings.
“Just the fact we have two good drivers is making the biggest difference because, in certain cases, I don’t think we necessarily had the quickest one,” he told reporters on Thursday ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix.
“But the fact that we have just two good drivers pushing each other makes just a bigger difference than people expect and take acknowledgment for.”
Norris said that he did not think the Ferrari duo of seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were inferior drivers but thought that he and Piastri deserved some credit for how they were performing.
“I also think between Oscar and myself, we both improved our own driving a lot,” he added. “And I feel like I’m more prepared for whatever the situation may be, whether it is racing against [world champion] Max [Verstappen] or Oscar or Lewis or Charles, whoever.
“I feel like I’m more prepared to know what level I need to be at, whether it’s going to be like a risky level or nonrisk level.”
Norris was happy to acknowledge that the McLaren was the strongest car on the grid.
“It’s nice to say that, I’ve not had that before in Formula One,” he added. “Max has had his time of having the best car by a long way and now it’s our turn. So that’s the game. You try to get every advantage possible. And McLaren did a very good job to beat the rest and make it better than everyone else.”
Equally, Norris said, talk that the McLaren was so far ahead of the rest of the field that the season was likely to be a procession was well wide of the mark.
“The people that say that, the unbeatable stuff, is just nonsense and they just like to talk cr*p sometimes,” he said. “If you go back one year ago, Red Bull were a lot further ahead than we are now. The fact that they had two drivers [Verstappen and Sergio Perez] up there dominating, they were a lot further ahead than we are now.
“So I think we’re doing a very good job … and we want to still try to increase our advantage more than what it is now.”
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