It seems only a matter of time that McLaren will take fourth place in the World Championship from Aston Martin. But can the racing team achieve even more and perhaps even challenge Ferrari’s third place? Lando Norris thinks that is at least “feasible”, even if the gap to the Scuderia is 79 points.
Hardly anyone doubts that McLaren will overtake Aston Martin. Fernando Alonso’s racing team had a huge lead over its rivals in the middle of the season, but with its new upgrade in Spielberg, McLaren has completely turned the tide, while Aston Martin has clearly lost momentum.
They now seem to be just a one-man team because Lance Stroll hasn’t scored a single point after the summer break. McLaren, on the other hand, has always had two drivers on the podium in the last three races, including the Qatar sprint.
The eleven points that McLaren is currently behind Aston Martin seem to be just a formality, even if Aston Martin team boss Mike Krack denies that they are currently a “sitting duck” against McLaren, i.e. a defenseless victim just waiting to be overtaken.
“No, you always have your fate in your own hands,” he says. “You have to try to improve the car, which we are still doing. And then we try to fight as hard as possible.”
But the numbers clearly speak for McLaren: Five races (plus two sprints) are still to be driven, and in the five races since the summer break, Aston Martin has only been able to score 34 points – McLaren 116.
Norris: “It’s doable”
That’s why McLaren is even looking a little ahead towards Ferrari, who are 79 points ahead. “It’s doable, I think so,” says Norris when asked whether Ferrari can still be caught up. “A few races ago, Aston was 70 points ahead of us.”
However, Ferrari won’t be able to catch up quite so easily: Scuderia has scored 107 points since the summer break, “only” nine fewer than McLaren. In addition, Ferrari only took pole and the race victory in Singapore.
Nevertheless, Norris is confident: “I think we’re doing a good job, not only in terms of pace, but we also had a pit stop of 1.8 seconds, which is pretty impressive for the guys. They worked extremely hard, and if “The whole team is rewarded so consistently, it motivates us even more every weekend,” said the Brit.
However, Norris also points out that not all upcoming routes will suit the McLaren as well as the preferred high-downforce routes Suzuka and especially Lusail. Therefore, the McLaren may not be able to repeat great successes such as the 33 points in Japan and the 47 points in Qatar, which also included a sprint.
Will it be more difficult now than in Qatar?
“We know that Mercedes is very fast, probably almost as fast as us [in Katar]”But they keep making mistakes,” he says. “I’m sure they’ll make life a little harder for us if they have a clean weekend, so I’m not so confident.”
“I don’t think we’re overconfident. We’re confident, I think we have to be, but we know there will still be some races where we won’t be as strong,” said Norris.
For Oscar Piastri, who took his first podium in Formula 1 in Suzuka and a sprint victory in Qatar, it is a “big challenge” but not impossible to catch up with Ferrari: “Suzuka and [Katar] are probably the routes we’ve had in mind for a while as being good for us,” he says.
“There will be some races that will be more difficult and will probably suit other teams better,” said the Australian. “I think 79 points in five races and a few sprints? That’s a big challenge, but we’ll try. Hopefully we can do it.”