Lando Norris has used the progress of Aston Martin and Ferrari in recent years to challenge McLaren to make sizeable headway through the 2023 Formula 1 season.
Ferrari went from edging out McLaren for third place in 2021 to utilising an overhaul to the technical regulations to win two of the opening three races at the start of last year.
Similarly, Aston Martin has made substantial strides forward over the most recent winter period to go from languishing down in seventh place in the Constructors’ standings to beating Ferrari and Mercedes for a podium spot in the opening race in Bahrain.
Norris reckons the advances made by two of McLaren’s former midfield rivals should be used as a template for the Woking outfit to markedly improve its competitiveness.
“I think we’ve clearly seen how big of a step Aston [Martin] have taken from one year to another. We saw how big of a step Ferrari took back in 2021 to 2022,” Norris began.
“And I know both of those were in the off-season and there’s more potential to do such a big change. But there’s no reason why 50% or 75% of that can’t be done through the season.
“Yeah. I’d like to think so,” the Brit ultimately reasoned when pondering the prospect of McLaren making steps equal to the examples he listed.
McLaren entered the 2023 season expecting to struggle in the early races after an internal decision to switch its development focus midway through the winter.
Despite fears it would end up contesting the lower places in the first round, McLaren’s MCL60 car fared better than anticipated in Bahrain.
Although rookie team-mate Oscar Piastri became a casualty in the first part of qualifying, Norris excelled to be classified P11 in the second segment.
With the entire grid being separated by only 1.1s in Q1, Norris confessed the even closer nature of the midfield pack in 2023 has further complicated McLaren’s chances.
“I think in a place we probably expected to be altogether,” he determined on Saturday evening.
“I think one thing that’s not been surprising but one thing that makes it even more difficult is just how close it is, and how many people we are fighting against. Williams are in the mix more, Haas are in the mix more, Alfa Romeo are in the mix more. That’s made our lives even tougher.
“But from my point of view, P11 was a pretty decent result today. It was a tenth and a half to Stroll, who is clearly much quicker than a tenth and a half ahead of me. So the gap ahead of him was like a 30.8, which is like four-tenths or something, which I definitely couldn’t achieve.”
He continued: “I think we got everything out of the car. I think where I am is where we kind of are. Yeah, I’m happy with it. I think a little bit better than maybe I was expecting from where we were in the test and so on.”
Norris has confirmed that McLaren introduced minor revisions to its car for the opening weekend but the British side requires bigger steps to improve its position in the pecking order.
McLaren is set to introduce a considerable upgrade package at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in late April.
“Little things, and we definitely made it and pushed it in the right direction a touch. But it was a touch, and it needs several more steps. I think a lot of things are still very clear for us,” the British driver admitted.
“But you’re right, I think a day like today when you can put almost everything together, we can be in a reasonable place. But I would also love if we can make it easier to achieve. That’s part of our plan, that’s our goal at the same time.”
McLaren’s opening race didn’t go as planned: Piastri retired after only 12 laps, while Norris was forced to pit six times with a pneumatic issue and ended up last of the classified runners.
Although it would eventually end the weekend pointless, new McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella remained confident a double points haul would have been possible.
Next up on the calendar is the third running of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix at the high-speed Jeddah Corniche Circuit where Norris has scored points on both visits so far.
