“We just might fall short,” Lando Norris lays out the harsh reality for McLaren ahead of the Italian Grand Prix

Lando Norris
The partnership between Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo at McLaren hasn’t really paid dividends since it came into play in 2021. Both the drivers have tried their best to get the best results for the team. Although Lando’s efforts could be seen but Daniel just seemed to struggle all this while. McLaren F1 who was once the third best team in 2020 has now gotten into a battle with Alpine for 4th place in the teams championship.
A few weeks ago, it was announced that Daniel Ricciardo and McLaren would be parting ways at the end of the season. This was possibly due to the poor performances of the Aussie driver and him constantly getting outperformed by young teammate Lando Norris. The pairing when it was first announced seemed like the dream pairing and the Honey Badger was poised to absolutely dominate his McLaren teammate in the standings. Although this wasn’t the case as the exact opposite scenario occurred.
Although Daniel Ricciardo will have immense satisfaction knowing that he is McLaren’s last race winner. A year ago in 2021 the British team was victorious in Monza where they achieved a 1-2 finish headed by Ricciardo while Lando Norris finished behind him. Although the British driver said that this result will be hard to replicate this weekend as the team doesn’t have the same pace that they had last time around when they came to race here.
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“Seventh and eighth now, I think that’s a realistic aim,” Lando Norris on his expectations for the Italian Grand Prix

Lando further went on to talk about the team’s goals for this race. “As much as I hate to say it, if we can have a seventh and eighth now, I think that’s a realistic aim but also a good result,” Norris said.
“It’s quite simple, six cars a lot quicker than us, we’ll go for that. A 1-2 is our aim tomorrow. We just might fall short…” he continued.
Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo have lined up 3rd and 4th for today’s race due to multiple drivers ahead of them facing grid penalties. This gives them a very good chance to get a better result in the race. Although the top teams have equipped their drivers with new parts and engines for the race which means that the McLaren duo will have to defend as hard as possible.