Lando Norris has attempted to play down McLaren’s status as F1 favourites ahead of the Australian GP.
Ahead of F1’s return in Australia this weekend, speculation is that McLaren has comfortably the fastest car on the grid.
To those in the paddock, the evidence supporting this came from McLaren’s long run pace during Bahrain testing.
Norris’s run was considerably faster than their rivals, leading many to conclude a McLaren one-two in Melbourne is inevitable.
However, during media day in Australia on Thursday, Norris refuted his and the team’s favourite status.
‘Short sighted’ conclusions
Speaking to media, Norris said any suggestion that McLaren could dominate the Australian GP was “short-sighted”.
“I feel like we are now. I know there’s a lot of expectation and that’s what everyone says,” he said.
“It was really just my one race run I did. It just made everyone believe this quite heavily. It was a good race run, but it was also in the most perfect conditions.
“Oscar did a race run the next day. That was a lot slower, not because he drove worse, but simply because the conditions on the final day were considerably slower. I’m quite surprised some of you were so short-sighted, especially if you wouldn’t expect to be, making so many conclusions before we even start the season.”
Lando Norris and McLaren focusing inward at the Australian GP
Norris elaborated by confirming he and the team are focusing solely on their own performance, but did admit McLaren were ” in the fight for victory”.
“Everyone just wants to play that game of looking like the underdog and playing it down. We just focus on ourselves. It’s nice that so many people are thinking about us and talking about us,” explained Norris.
“It’s great publicity for us, so I thank all of them. It really makes no difference. If I go out and just pretend and do a bad job, who cares what people say in the past? I don’t believe it.
“I feel like we’re in a similar playing field to the top of the three teams. I still think it’s top four. There are many things that other people didn’t see.
“Other people are extremely strong, including Red Bull, including Mercedes, including Ferrari. I know how much fuel and stuff Ferrari had for a lot of the testing.
“You’d be surprised at how quick they’re going to be as a team. People can talk what they want. I think for us, we kept to ourselves.
“We kept focused. If we want to be quick, we expect to be up there fighting. But I don’t think we’ll be fighting by the margin that I just said.
Feature Image Credit: @McLarenF1 on X
