McLaren was on top of the racing world in Miami, with Lando Norris taking his first Grand Prix victory.
Speaking in the press conference ahead for this weekend’s race at Imola for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, the Brit was extremely blunt: despite the amazing result in the United States, he thinks McLaren is third in the current pecking order.
Red Bull is first, and he believes that Ferrari is probably second, meaning that the Woking outfit has a way to go to reach the top consistently, despite the win in Miami.
When Norris’ teammate, Oscar Piastri, was asked about his statement, he strayed away from speculation, and just said that the results will be shown on track.
“It’s very hard to know. We went into China and Miami thinking we would struggle a bit more and they’ve probably been our most competitive weekend. Miami certainly was.
“I think we’ve kind of learned to stop predicting how we’re going to be and just see how we go.
“I think it’ll be tough [at Imola]. Ferrari has got some upgrades this weekend. I don’t know what Red Bull will do but everyone is constantly making their cars better. We can’t stand still and kind of just expect it to be like that every weekend.
“I think it would be naive of us to think we can win every weekend now that we’ve won one. But I think we are definitely getting closer.
“We’re learning more and more as we go through the season, which is helping us a lot.”
Norris on the other hand was doubling down on his statement, saying that even though the team is making good strides towards being at the top, there was races like Bahrain and Jeddah that set the team back.
Nonetheless, it’s clear McLaren has taken a step since the opening couple of races, and the Miami upgrade has moved them much closer to Red Bull on the basis of what happened at Round 6.
In China, Norris had already beaten the Ferraris on merit, and he beat Sergio Perez was well. He went even better in Miami by beating Max Verstappen to the victory.
Norris is looking to 2025 as to when McLaren could properly challenge for both titles.
“The progress we’re making, with the developments that we’ve had, there’s no reason to say no [to being in title contention soon],” Norris explained.
“But I do know it’s a whole other task to do it consistently, to do it every weekend. And when you are there to deliver under pressure every time – in qualifying, in races – to battle for these positions more than what I have done.
“That’s still something I look forward to, racing against Max a bit more and racing against the Ferraris a bit more.
“Which is something we’ve not done, I’ve not done, a huge amount over the last few years.
“I’m not overconfident, I’m not underconfident. I feel like I’m at a good balance of accepting where we are and I still think we’re the third-best team at the minute, but that could change if we have another good weekend here.
“I’m confident with how the team are doing, with our rate of development, which is better than any other team on the grid, that by next year, we can challenge a lot more often for wins.
“And in the big picture, hopefully, challenge for a title.”
