McLaren slipped from fourth to fifth after being edged out by Alpine, who produced a less reliable but still faster car, and the Woking team were not helped by Daniel Ricciardo’s well-documented struggles.
Norris acknowledged McLaren’s car wasn’t good enough to do much more than it did and said P5 was the team’s spot. “Yeah, that’s where we deserve to be, P5,” Norris said.
“I guess you feel very disappointed when there’s a shot at P4 and you feel like you could have had it. But we had a bad reliability weekend, Alpine had four or five, they’ve had a faster car the majority of the year.
“So I think to have continued to fight with them for so long proves how good a job we’ve done with a worse package, honestly. And so, that’s why I’m quite happy. We are P5, but there are a lot of good things about the work we do.
“We started too far behind at the start of the season, so hopefully we can start much higher next year, do the development, make the progress that we have made this season and we will be much better off.”
Lando Norris, McLaren, is interviewed
Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Norris admitted McLaren’s car performance “hasn’t been good enough” this year, but hailed the progress it has made in operational areas, such as turning its weakness in pit stops into a strength in over the past few seasons.
“It’s not a good enough job from the whole team and again it all depends on the car we had,” added Norris.
“We know we had a very difficult season, we found it difficult. We have to take a step next year and I feel like everyone is trying hard to do that.
“I think it’s just motivation, it’s just energy for everyone to finish ahead of Alpine. Everyone here on the track I think did a really good job, the mechanics, engineers, I think we pretty much maximized every opportunity we’ve had.
“The mechanics did an outstanding job during the toughest year for pit stops. With heavier tires, worse guns, we had the fastest pit stop this year, we have had several fastest pit stops over the weekend. So many areas are on a good trajectory and are better than ever.
“All the mechanics and engineers are more motivated than ever to make a better car. It’s just not an easy thing to do, but they have a good plan in place.”
McLaren slipped from fourth to fifth after being edged out by Alpine, who produced a less reliable but still faster car, and the Woking team were not helped by Daniel Ricciardo’s well-documented struggles.
Norris acknowledged McLaren’s car wasn’t good enough to do much more than it did and said P5 was the team’s spot. “Yeah, that’s where we deserve to be, P5,” Norris said.
“I guess you feel very disappointed when there’s a shot at P4 and you feel like you could have had it. But we had a bad reliability weekend, Alpine had four or five, they’ve had a faster car the majority of the year.
“So I think to have continued to fight with them for so long proves how good a job we’ve done with a worse package, honestly. And so, that’s why I’m quite happy. We are P5, but there are a lot of good things about the work we do.
“We started too far behind at the start of the season, so hopefully we can start much higher next year, do the development, make the progress that we have made this season and we will be much better off.”
Lando Norris, McLaren, is interviewed
Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Norris admitted McLaren’s car performance “hasn’t been good enough” this year, but hailed the progress it has made in operational areas, such as turning its weakness in pit stops into a strength in over the past few seasons.
“It’s not a good enough job from the whole team and again it all depends on the car we had,” added Norris.
“We know we had a very difficult season, we found it difficult. We have to take a step next year and I feel like everyone is trying hard to do that.
“I think it’s just motivation, it’s just energy for everyone to finish ahead of Alpine. Everyone here on the track I think did a really good job, the mechanics, engineers, I think we pretty much maximized every opportunity we’ve had.
“The mechanics did an outstanding job during the toughest year for pit stops. With heavier tires, worse guns, we had the fastest pit stop this year, we have had several fastest pit stops over the weekend. So many areas are on a good trajectory and are better than ever.
“All the mechanics and engineers are more motivated than ever to make a better car. It’s just not an easy thing to do, but they have a good plan in place.”