Lando Norris has sung the praises of McLaren’s top-notch driver line-up, crediting it as their edge over rival teams. And he believes Lewis Hamilton’s lack of experience with Ferrari machinery puts the Italian squad at a disadvantage.
A roaring start to the season saw McLaren grab victories in the first two races with Norris taking the win in Melbourne and team-mate Oscar Piastri leading a one-two finish for the squad in China. Those triumphs have sparked conversations about a potential championship tussle between the two McLaren drivers.
However, Norris sees their rivalry as beneficial, elevating the team’s performance to new levels. He said ahead of this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix: “We are not that far ahead but I think it’s because we literally are the only team that has two good drivers at the minute.
“That’s the big difference, you know, if one of us was doing a lot worse, or one of us was not as strong. I think just the fact we have two good drivers is obviously making the biggest difference. In certain cases, I don’t think we necessarily had the quickest car.
“But the fact that we have two drivers pushing each other makes a bigger difference than people expect. Do I agree we have the best car? Yes. It’s nice to say that, I have not had that before in Formula 1.
“Max [Verstappen] has had his time of having the best car by a long way and now it’s our turn. That’s the game, McLaren have done a very good job to be the best and make it better than everyone else, so we take the advantage while we can but the others are certainly not that far behind.”
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Verstappen pipped Norris to the post last season, securing his fourth F1 drivers’ title, but Red Bull have faced challenges with their second driver and have now replaced Liam Lawson with Yuki Tsunoda after just two races.
Seven-time champion Hamilton has joined Charles Leclerc at Ferrari this season, yet he acknowledges there is a learning curve with his new car. Norris pointed to that as he explained why he thinks the McLaren duo currently has the upper hand.
“The Ferrari one is experience – not in F1 because we are lacking in that department,” he added. “Just two drivers who understand the team and have been at the team for a long time. Lewis is new to the Ferrari, he openly says he is learning how to use the steering wheel – the complexity of it, not just how to use one!
“Is he going to be able to extract every last bit out of it like me and Oscar can? No. It’s not that I think I’m much better than Lewis or Charles because I don’t. I would never put myself on a pedestal ever. But how we work as a team I do think is better than any other team, how we push each other and get more out of one another as two drivers is a real advantage.”
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