Norris believes gap to Red Bull is not that big: 'Hope for everyone'

Max Verstappen immediately won the first Grand Prix of the season in Bahrain with a substantial lead over the competition. Still, Lando Norris sees potential and had expected Red Bull to be a lot further away. Red Bull became champions early last season, giving the team longer to design this year's car.

"Considering that they spent a lot of time developing and making their new car for this year, I'm pretty happy with how close we were to Red Bull. Even in qualifying, it wasn't like he had an easy one and was that convincing. I'm sure they are still learning about their car. It's a very different concept they have," Norris explained.

Red Bull had a head start

"They started their development on that car a long time before everyone else. Not a surprise at all, but I see a surprise at how close we were and how close a lot of teams were. Even when you look at Carlos relative to Sergio. And if Carlos wasn't stuck behind Sergio in the middle stint, like it wouldn't have been even as big, probably. I think signs of hope for everyone, I would say," concluded McLaren's British driver.

During the first free practice session in Saudi Arabia, Norris finished seventh in his McLaren. In contrast, the reigning world champion was considerably faster than the rest of the field.