Is McLaren the second team: 'Between us and Mercedes, it's tight'

Expectations for this weekend were not very high for the Woking-based team. After all, the car would be especially strong on the circuits where the fast corners are, and the Hungaroring does not really fall under such a circuit. Still, McLaren surprised again during qualifying, as Norris was allowed to start from third place, and Oscar Piastri from fourth. During the race, too, the British stable did not disappoint. Piastri even moved up to P2 after the start, but had to cede the position to his teammate after the first set of pit stops. Norris eventually finished second, and Piastri fifth.

Norris on battle with Mercedes

Red Bull was much faster than McLaren during the race, but it was very exciting with Lewis Hamilton and his Mercedes. When asked who was the second-fastest team this weekend, Norris replied the following during the press conference: "hat's tough to say. I think between us and Mercedes, we're pretty tied. If you look at tyre degradation, Mercedes are way, way better than we are. Mercedes have always been very, very strong with tyre degradation. If you look at yesterday, Mercedes were quite a bit quicker with Lewis. I wouldn't be the guy that says no, and I believe that Mercedes are very close, but it's tight. I think, like I said, if Lewis stayed ahead in Turn 2, they would have beaten us today, and I probably wouldn't be on the podium at all. And then you'd be saying, oh, Mercedes are quicker. But just because I overtook him, you'd think McLaren are quicker. So it's tight."

Norris on improvements for the McLaren

Norris indicated before the weekend that he was not yet completely satisfied. He has since revealed what he would like to see no improvement on his car: "It is two things. One is just more load, you know, just more grip, I go around the corners a bit quicker. While doing that, I guess we've tried to improve some of the handling balance issues that we have, which I guess is another part of it."