Norris: 'Lot of other teams that were competitive are not as much now'

F1 News

Norris on chances in Spa and broken Trophy Belgian Grand Prix 2023
27 July 2023 at 14:39
Last update 27 July 2023 at 15:07

Lando Norris has finished second in the last two races with his improved McLaren car, and has his eyes set on achieving another great result in Belgium, at a track he likes a lot. The British driver also had to follow up on the tale of the trophy he broke at the Hungaroring.

"Spa is one of my favourite circuits of the season, conditions which generally we perform  pretty well in, so there's no reason why we shouldn't say to kind of continue where we've been," Norris began. 

He continued: "We'll see what the conditions are going to do first of all. Yeah, I think a couple of years ago things were going very well in the wet until it all went horribly wrong, but the car's competitive. We've clearly made a big, big step, fighting cars we weren't expecting to, or being ahead of cars we weren't expecting to be ahead of, and fighting for podiums, fighting for pole positions."

The Briton also commented on the changes at the front of the grid in terms of performance: "I think the biggest thing is a lot of other teams that were competitive in the start aren't as competitive now. If you look at Aston Martin, you look at Ferrari, they were a lot closer to the front than what they are now, and we just seem to have swapped positions for some reason. But I don't know if they've taken a step back or Red Bull have taken a step forward or what."

Follow up on the broken trophy

"First of all, I do want to apologise for it, obviously I had no intention in ever doing such a thing, and I know how much it means to the Hungarians and part of their culture and so forth. Of course, I wanted to enjoy the time, it was never my intention to do such thing. I did apologise to Max, you know obviously I have made a couple of jokes about it, which maybe I shouldn’t. I really didn’t mean for it, so I make sure I am a lot more careful next time on celebrating," commented on the incident of the broken trophy at the Hungaroring.

Norris was asked about whether he would change his celebration, but the Briton was clear on keeping his way of celebrating on the podium. "I want to say no, there is no reason why I should, I just take a little bit more care of what I do. I will just move the trophies aside and continue."