McLaren’s incredible Japanese Grand Prix weekend has moved them even closer to Aston Martin in the fight for 4th in the Constructors’ Championship.
A P2 for Lando Norris and P3 for Oscar Piastri saw the Woking-based team outscore their rivals by 29 points at Suzuka on Sunday.
Fernando Alonso’s P2 finish in Canada put Aston Martin 137 points clear of McLaren back in June. Nobody could have predicted the turnaround that was to come.
The MCL60 has been transformed into an incredibly quick car following that awful start to the season. Aston Martin have been going in the opposite director, however.
From Austria to Japan, McLaren have cut the gap by 88 points across those 8 events.
While Norris expects Aston to be stronger at a couple of races, the Brit believes they can be caught as both McLaren drivers are contributing to the points tally. At Aston Martin, Alonso has scored 174 of the team’s 221 points to date.
“Yes. I didn’t think it was that close. But yeah, if it’s 49, then I definitely think so. There’s not many races left. I’m sure there’s going to be a couple where Aston are going to be a bit stronger.
“But I think our advantage at the minute comparing to almost every team, bar a couple, is we have two drivers who are up there fighting for these positions and fighting for these points. And not every team has that at the minute. So I think that’s helping us.
“We can help one another, we can use one another, and I think that’s a good advantage we have over a lot of other teams at the minute.”
Norris admits he is proud of the job done by everyone at McLaren to turn a car that was a long way off the front through the opening few rounds into a package that is now fighting for podiums on a pretty regular basis.
“We’re on an upward trend. We’re making good progress and days like today prove exactly that.
“Even though I know there’s going to be maybe some tougher races coming up at times and maybe not as straightforward as today but the progress we’ve made this season has been pretty incredible from my eyes and from where we were, to finishing 18 seconds behind the lead or 19 seconds is I think evidence of exactly that. So I’m proud of everyone and we’ll keep pushing.”
Photo credit: Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team
