Lando Norris feels McLaren must aim to replicate Ferrari’s new regulations step-up in 2023

Ferrari and McLaren spent the majority of 2021 embroiled in a fight for P3, ‘best of the rest’, with each other. The Italian team eventually came out on top, but McLaren had something over them – a win, at Ferrari’s own home race. But from the first race of 2022, it quickly became clear that the two were now in ‘different leagues’. The Maranello team competed at the top with Red Bull (and got a 1-2 in the season opener), while McLaren did not score any points.

The Woking team certainly improved in the following races, with the highlight of their season coming in Imola with Lando Norris’ P3. But that was never going to be enough to catch up. While Ferrari had their own woes, that led to them falling out of championship contention, they still had a much better season than McLaren. While Zak Brown attributed this to Ferrari being ‘out of place’ in the midfield, Norris wants his team to replicate the Italians’ 2022 gains.

In an interview with Autosport, the Briton said: “That’s achievable. I think what they did was extremely good. Going from where they were [in 2021], from almost getting beat by us, to going to where they are getting wins, fighting for podiums every single weekend…That’s what we need to be aiming for. That level of a jump from one season to another.”

According to Norris, Ferrari ‘maximized’ a new era, and this kind of progress must be McLaren’s goal for the future: “They’ve obviously had, not the luck, but they’ve maximized a new era, a new rules set for Formula 1 with new cars, which has allowed them to make a bigger jump than ever. But there’s still plenty of opportunities for us to achieve something like that. And that’s where we need to be setting our goals for.”

Read More: “A few people said that I had saved their life,” Lando Norris reveals the impact of him speaking openly about mental health

Lando Norris: McLaren have to do a better job with the car

McLaren are one of the most storied names in the history of Formula 1, and it’s fair to say that since 2012 they haven’t really been where they would want. Ferrari haven’t been at their best either, but have competed for the title a few times, even if it ended in failure. On the other hand, McLaren have been almost completely out of it. This needs to change soon, and while the new wind tunnel which is set to go online soon will be a boost – Lando Norris wants faster and bigger improvements.

The Briton said: “The fact is, we have to do a better job and the team have to do a better job with making a better car. I think already next year we need to make progress. I have good faith that we can. We have a huge amount of what we need in the right areas and the right people and so on. It’s just that final hurdle, the final thing to get us up to the same level to then have no excuse against Red Bull, Mercedes, and Ferrari. The team know that they need to do a better job.”

It must be said that 2022 turned out to be a bit of a step down for McLaren. From fighting for P3 in 2021, they instead fought for P4 in 2022, losing on both occasions. Alpine seemed to have the measure of them in car performance for most of the season, and it was mostly through Lando Norris’ heroics that they had a better fighting chance. In 2023, they will aim to make a step up against Alpine first, then perhaps they can think about the top 3 teams, who currently look untouchable.

In case you missed it:

• Lando Norris reveals he held contract negotiations with many teams before settling for McLaren
• “Factually wrong,” Lando Norris gets in a feud with Kym Illman over the F1 photographer’s recent Instagram post

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