09/04/2024
NEWS STORY
With Red Bull out of reach, Lando Norris admits that McLaren is still no match for Ferrari either.
Though the Briton qualified ahead of both Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, Ferrari had always insisted that its race pace was strong, and this proved to be the case.
Able to hold off Sainz at both starts, Norris was struggling and pitted on Lap 11 in a bid to undercut the Spaniard, who pitted four laps later. Though the strategy paid off, Norris lost out to the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc who had bravely opted for a long opening stint on the mediums.
When Norris made his second stop (on Lap 26) it coincided with Leclerc's first, but while the Monegasque rejoined in sixth, the Briton dropped to eighth behind Russell. Though he was able to work his way back up to fourth, behind Leclerc, he was subsequently passed by the second Ferrari ten laps later.
"Tough race!" said the Briton. "We gave it a good try, but we just didn't have enough pace today, so trying to cover and stay ahead of the Ferraris was challenging.
"It was as expected, to be honest with you," he subsequently added. "Which is behind Ferrari, where we've been all year.
"It was hard in the beginning," he admitted, "when you're trying to push to keep up with a quicker car or push to stay ahead of the Ferraris, which were quicker, you hurt the tyres more and it's just kind of like a bit of a spiral, fighting a losing battle.
"Yesterday we excelled, I put in some very strong laps and made us look maybe a bit too good. Today it was a bit more back to reality."
"I think we did what was best at the time," he said of the strategy, in particular the timing of his second stop, "but it's always hard to know. Maybe we didn't expect Charles to box? I'm not sure. He was close enough that you would kind of want to say, If we'd done something different, maybe we'd have a better chance."
No match for the Ferraris, his team feared he was potentially open to attack by George Russel, who is fact ended the race battling with the other McLaren.
"I think we covered George, which I feel like we maybe didn't need to do," said Norris. "And because we tried to cover George, we boxed at the same time as Charles. I could have gone another five, six laps, created a tyre delta, and then come back through like Carlos did," he suggested. "It's just an opinion, but it's something we'll discuss and review.
"We still did a good job and maximised the points, but starting third and finishing fifth is never the nicest thing to happen. It's the maximum of what we could achieve today though. We have to be happy with it, as much as it doesn't feel like a great result."
"We are happy that we are pushing for podium finishes, even if today it was out of our grasp," said team boss, Andrea Stella. "We tried to go for a podium with Lando, stopping early, making sure we stayed ahead of Carlos, but ultimately, we didn't have the pace. It also meant that we found ourselves on a slightly slower strategy and we finished behind Leclerc.
"Obviously after a strong qualifying, we could have hoped for trying to consolidate a podium finish," he admitted, "but it wasn't on the cards in terms of car performance today.
"If we look at the classification, at least for the first five, it's in competitiveness order. But it was important points for the team today, which consolidates third position in the championship."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Suzuka here.