Norris ‘not confident’ McLaren can repeat recent exploits in US GP

Lando Norris admits he’s “not so confident” that McLaren can repeat its recent podium exploits in this weekend’s United States Grand Prix.

After both McLaren drivers ended up inside the top three in Japan, Norris and team-mate Oscar Piastri followed that up by securing podium spots again in Qatar last time out.

However, Norris is wary that those headline results arrived on high-speed circuit configurations that have consistently played to the strengths of McLaren’s MCL60 car.

Therefore, the Briton, who is embarking upon his 100th Formula 1 grand prix start this weekend, is anticipating a tight battle behind Red Bull at the Circuit of the Americas.

Asked if he was confident McLaren could replicate its Qatar pace at the Austin track, Norris said: “Not so confident, lots of slow speed corners which is not our strength.

“We know that on this type of track, Mercedes will be very strong, Ferrari, Aston [Martin].

“We know we will be strong in Qatar, but with the slow corners I am definitely not as confident, but anyway, I wouldn’t say it will be a bad weekend.

“I think we can still fight. This will be a much bigger war than we think.

Despite finishing third, Norris regretted not being able to win after having both laps deleted in Q3 for exceeding track limits, leaving him 10th.

Norris also lamented how a mistake in the dying embers of the Sprint Shootout allowed Piastri to push him into first place, paving the way for the Australian to win.

Questioned on whether he would alter his approach to avoid a repeat of the track limits fiasco that hampered his victory hopes in Qatar, Norris replied: “Not much, the margins are so small. The thing which made it all worse is that I should have been on pole on both, I say both occasions, but at worst I should have had a first and second.

“When I realised what could and should have been, I felt there were a lot of missed opportunities on my side.

“There have been plenty of other races where I haven’t made mistakes and I felt like I have performed very well, but the ones that get picked up are the bad races,” he added.

“It happens to everyone, I’ll try and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

McLaren’s substantial 47-point haul in Qatar enabled the side to close to within only 11 points of Aston Martin in the battle for fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship.

But Norris also aims to topple Ferrari, who endured a difficult weekend when Carlos Sainz was eliminated before the race with a fuel system problem.

However, Sainz is optimistic that Ferrari will be able to defend their 79-point buffer in the remaining five rounds, although he admits McLaren now have the stronger package.

“I think if we don’t have DNS or DNF anymore, I think we can keep them behind,” Sainz said.

“That doesn’t mean I don’t think they’ll beat us in most races from here until the rest of the season if everything goes well.”

“They have a very fast car now and it seems sometimes they are the only ones who can bother Red Bull; unless it’s a track more like Singapore, where there might be a little more of us.”

Sainz added that he and Norris discussed their teams’ respective chances this weekend.

“Yesterday I played golf with Lando, we discussed whether they will lead this weekend, whether we will lead in qualifying or in the race,” he added.

“But deep down we don’t know, so we’ll see tomorrow.”