Norris discusses if McLaren can sustain pace beyond Austria
F1 News
Lando Norris secured his fourth Formula 1 career podium in Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix. Three of which have come in the opening nine races of the 2021 season. He remains the only driver to have scored points in every race and stays in the race for third in the Championship. Despite this, Norris admits he is "disappointed" with the result which he believes should've been a career-best finish in second place.
After the safety car restart, Norris and Sergio Perez were fighting for position at turn four when the Red Bull driver ran out of room and had to run across the gravel trap. The stewards deemed Norris to be at fault and therefore the Brit was given a five-second penalty. He ended the race just two seconds behind Valtteri Bottas.
"My podiums are all at a similar level. I’m just a bit disappointed. It could have been second and not just third – so maybe this is the worst one," Norris said in the FIA press conference.
Can McLaren replicate this performance?
Following the Austrian Grand Prix, McLaren now have a 19 point lead over Ferrari in the battle for 'best of the rest' in the Constructors Championship. Norris discusses whether we can expect more podiums in the second-half of the season.
"It was already a step better than last weekend. But also, the track temperature and ambient temperature were helping us a lot so I think relatively we made a step forward from last weekend and I was what, fourth in quali and two-and-a-half tenths off pole and now we were second and half-a-tenth off pole, so we did make a step forward and I think the car was definitely better and nicer to drive, both in qualifying and the longevity of a race," Norris added.
"I think just the conditions also helped and our approach to the strategy was a little bit different this weekend compared to the last one after doing our homework and learning from a few things to try to improve on. So, it was a number of things but yeah, the car being slightly better was the main one."