McLaren drops to P5 in 2022: 'This is where we deserve to be'

In Abu Dhabi, McLaren still had a small chance to take fourth place among the constructors from Alpine, but with sixth and ninth places for Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, respectively, the team did not score enough points to overtake the French racing stable. After the Grand Prix, Norris states that he can live with it.

Norris won't complain

''It's where we deserve to be P5. I guess you feel disappointed when there's a shot at P4 and you could've had it. We've had one bad weekend of reliability, Alpine have had 4 or 5,'' Norris told GPblog.com and others after the race.

''They've had a quicker car the majority of the year. To have kept in a fight with them for so long proves how good a job we've done with a worse package. That's why I'm quite happy. We're P5 but there's a lot of good things about the job we're doing. You need a good car. We started too far behind at the beginning of the season, hopefully we can start much higher up next year. Make the development and progress we did this season and we'll be much better off.''

McLaren had porpoising problems especially at the start of the season. The MCL36 bounced across the tarmac during the first race in Bahrain and the brakes also proved unable to withstand long races. The team got a competitive enough package together early in the season, but it ultimately proved not enough to outsmart Alpine yet.