First to hit the track in today’s rainy qualifying session, Lando Norris finished in P5 but will start P4 for the Belgian GP due to Max Verstappen’s grid penalty.
Despite finishing in pole position, Verstappen will start the race on the sixth row, whilst his teammate will line up on the first, in P2.
When asked if Red Bull is still a threat to McLaren, Norris stated “Yes, (they’re) definitely a threat.
“Even yesterday in FP2, they just didn’t turn up the engine, in reality. Considering we were only two-tenths ahead, they had a lot more on their bag, basically. In a way, a good thing, shows that we still have a lot more work to do.”
Despite the team having a good run of races, with Piastri winning in Hungary, and Norris in Miami, the Brit claimed that Red Bull has always been in the MCL38’s mirror.
“Even after a lot of great races in the past few weeks, I think Red Bull have always been there or thereabouts.”
Norris is adamant that they’re still a threat to McLaren as they’re “just as quick” and are leading both the drivers and constructors championships.
“People want to try and count them out at times. Max was easily on par with us in quali last weekend. He’s in pretty much the same race pace, just made more mistakes than what we did, as simple as that.”
Talking about Verstappen, Norris noted that despite him starting in P11, he “has looked strong since the first lap in FP1. He was quite easily the strongest. It’s going to be a threat tomorrow.
“But that’s low fuel and hopefully high fuel is a little bit more even. But 100% he’s going to be coming through quickly. I’m sure he’ll be a threat for us as well.”
With a Red Bull still ahead of both McLarens for the GP, the team will need to pass Pérez to get to the top spot on the podium.
On the race simulations on Friday, McLaren looked extremely good on the long runs, managing their tyres quite nicely as well.
“He’s in the quickest car… making the tyres last better than him, that kind of thing is going to be harder than some of the others.
“I think when you look at the pace from Friday, it gives us a decent amount of confidence. We’ve got to just keep our heads down and focus on ourselves. We can hopefully get through at some point in the race.”
Norris simply claimed that, “we have to get past all of them.”
Wary that Perez may be particularly defensive on track due to speculation about his seat for the remainder of the season, Norris noted that, “Checo (will) potentially will have a bit more of a defensive mindset than the others.”
Regardless, he noted that all three drivers in front of him will all get their elbows out to try and hold position, with McLaren expected to have very strong race pace.
“Charles is still fighting off pole for a win. So, he’s going to be fighting hard for it. He’s not just going to let things go easily.
“Same with Hamilton. He’s always going to be aggressive and defensive when he needs to be.”
