Lando Norris described McLaren’s performance at the British Grand Prix as a weekend full of challenges, despite securing a respectable fourth place finish in the race.
After finishing third in Saturday’s Sprint, Norris and the McLaren team faced a tough battle at their home race in Silverstone, unable to match the outright speed of front-runners Ferrari and Mercedes. Throughout the 52-lap race, Norris was not able to keep pace with the leaders. However, incidents including technical issues for Kimi Räikkönen and a spin by Max Verstappen, possibly caused by rear wing failure, allowed Norris to move up the order and finish fourth.
Reflecting on the weekend, Norris said, “Considering how not nice it’s felt out there, P4 and a P3 this weekend in the Sprint is quite remarkable, honestly. Of course, we were lucky today, but racing is about finishing, reliability, and avoiding mistakes. I don’t know what happened to Max and Kimi, but we benefited from it.”
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Norris also highlighted car performance issues, particularly a poor start and general handling troubles. “The car just wasn’t very nice in any way whatsoever today, so we have a lot to improve,” he admitted. “The positive is the results, and that’s really the only thing that matters at the end of the day, but the pace to get them was really, really not good. We need to take a big step forward.”
He pinpointed McLaren’s MCL40 as lacking sufficient grip and downforce, which made the high-speed, flowing Silverstone circuit especially challenging. However, with upgrades planned, Norris remains optimistic that the team can turn their fortunes around. “I’m still confident that the team can build race-winning and championship-winning cars. It’s just a race against time right now. I’m not out of the race – I don’t believe I am out of it just yet. But we need improvements now, not later.”
With 13 race weekends remaining in the season, Norris and McLaren face an urgent challenge to boost both performance and consistency if they are to climb higher in the standings and contend for victories.