Motor Racing-Norris Optimistic McLaren Can Beat Dominant Red Bull – News18

LONDON: McLaren’s Lando Norris mentioned he was optimistic Formula One champions Red Bull and Max Verstappen may very well be overwhelmed this season however doing it repeatedly could be one other matter.

Red Bull received 21 of twenty-two races final 12 months in essentially the most dominant of championships, with solely Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz denying them a clear sweep, and triple world champion Verstappen triumphant a document 19 occasions.

Norris completed second six occasions and third as soon as with workforce mate Oscar Piastri additionally runner-up in Qatar — the place the Australian received the dash race — as McLaren ended the season strongly after a gradual begin.

The drivers have been requested, after giving the brand new MCL38 automotive its first laps at a moist Silverstone on Wednesday, about their probabilities towards Red Bull.

Aston Martin’s technical director Dan Fallows had mentioned earlier within the week that he thought-about Red Bull to be ‘absolutely beatable’ and the McLaren drivers agreed.

“If you were to say ‘are they beatable?’ you’re going to have to say yes, I think we want to believe to say yes, because we were very close at certain times (in 2023) and at certain times we did beat them,” mentioned Norris.

“The question is can we beat them over a season because I think that’s going to be the challenging thing and I think that’s going to be very difficult to do with how well they are performing.

“So, yeah, optimistic. Possible to beat them at certain times, I want to believe so. Yes.”

Piastri agreed and mentioned the workforce may very well be very optimistic if they may preserve the speed of growth.

“We also have to be aware it’s not just Red Bull we’re fighting,” he added. “We were in a very intense battle with Mercedes and Ferrari especially in the second half of the year in terms of championship points.

“I think there will be other top teams making progress as well,” added the Australian.

Team principal Andrea Stella mentioned he anticipated Red Bull to begin the season in Bahrain on March 2 nonetheless “enjoying some advantage” as a result of that they had been capable of swap their focus to the brand new automotive early in 2023.

Both drivers mentioned their first impressions of the brand new automotive have been constructive, even when the observe was moist and the tyres unrepresentative.

“The main thing is I jumped in and felt very comfortable straight away, no surprises or anything,” mentioned Norris.

“As these kind of days go, it was smooth sailing,” mentioned Piastri.

(This story has not been edited by News18 employees and is revealed from a syndicated information company feed – Reuters)