'Always Makes Other People Look Bad': Norris Hits Back At Alonso's 'Overconfident' Claims

Friday, 06 October 2023 at 16:00

Updated at Tuesday, 02 January 2024 at 20:22

McLaren F1 driver Lando Norris responded to Fernando Alonso's comments describing McLaren as "over-confident" in the fight for the Constructors' Championship.

During the press conference ahead of the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso said McLaren is "over-confident" in their abilities to beat Aston Martin in the Constructors' Championship battle. The comment came as a reaction to Lando Norris's Japanese Grand Prix post-race interview claims.

Norris came in with a response for Motorsport.com, who approached him following the press conference ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix. Norris seemed to be shocked at first but then explained the pace at which McLaren has been catching on to Aston Martin as a reason for his confidence.

"He says that we're getting too confident? How many points did we catch [back up] last weekend? Quite a few Over 20, I think [it was 33, with Aston scoring four at Suzuka after non-scoring in Singapore, where Norris also finished second]."

"So, unless his maths is deteriorating, which it definitely isn't... Fernando is just Fernando – he's always going to say things. He always makes himself look very good or makes other people look bad. He's very good at that"

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Even though McLaren has, in fact, been catching Aston Martin at a very fast pace, the truth is also that Lance Stroll withdrew from the Singapore Grand Prix ahead of the race and retired from the Japanese Grand Prix, consequently scoring zero points for the team. Norris believes he is being reasonable with his statements.

But I thought we were a lot more points behind, so for us to be then 49 [back] with six races still to go [and] two cars performing well – they struggle at the minute to have two cars up there in Q3 [or] up there at the end of the race – then I would say it's silly for him to think the opposite.