Lando Norris brushes off Aston Martin concern now that McLaren has regained pace, says ‘definitely, we can beat them’
Lando Norris has stated his firm belief that McLaren will shatter Aston Martin's initial dominance in F1 2023 now that they have found their pace.
Follow Us
The most recent races in Singapore and Japan saw McLaren in a truly thunderous form. The papaya army racers, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, chased down heavyweight opponents from Mercedes and Ferrari to get a position on the podium. While Singapore was all about a display of Lando Norris’ cool-minded excellence, Suzuka was great for both him and his teammate. Piastri, the 21-year-old F2 Champion who just joined Formula 1 in this season, got his debut podium win in Japan.
Their recent results go to show how McLaren have improved undoubtedly from their form that upset the fans at the beginning of the year. At the season opener in Bahrain, Norris had scored zero points as he was the last racer to cross the finish line. And Oscar Piastri could not even see the end to his race as he DNFed halfway through. But at that time, Aston Martin shone through with great results from their marquee racer Fernando Alonso. The Oviedo got back to back podiums and single-handedly catapulted his team to the second spot on the World Championship table.
But the situation reached a turning point at the British GP when the McLaren MCL37 came with its new upgrades. Lando Norris scored his first podium of this year and even Oscar Piastri got so close with a P4 finish. And then, the recently held Suzuka GP got the team their first double podium–a challenge that Aston Martin is yet to achieve in this year. Thus, it looks like the scales are weighing towards McLaren in the fight for P4 in the Championship.
Lando Norris does not think Aston Martin are even close to beating McLaren
At the Japanese GP, Lando Norris got the best of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso. Despite having way more experience spanning decades as compared to Lando, the Spaniard was a long way down the list. He could only get an 8th place finish with a gap of almost 54 seconds to the McLaren racer.
Thus, when asked if McLaren can survive the fight for P4 against Aston Martin, Norris said (as quoted by F1ingenerale), “I didn’t think we were so close. 49 points, definitely, we can beat them. There aren’t many races left.”
On the other hand, Lando Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri got a surprising message from his mom after winning maiden F1 podium. The proud Australian parent asked jokingly if she could get rid of the countless trophies that her child prodigy has already collected on the way to his F1 career now that he has a Grand Prix podium win too. Nicole Piastri is known for her witty quips on X, and many of the fans even believe she should get her own verified badge as she has gained celebrity status now.
In case you missed it:
Stay Updated!
Riddhi Mondal
(1821 Articles Published)