'Ferrari Is Not Out Of Question And Neither Is Red Bull': Norris Optimistic Ahead Of Saudi GP

F1
Thursday, 07 March 2024 at 17:30
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Lando Norris seems to be quite ambitious ahead of the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, as he's targeting one of the fastest teams on the grid at the moment.
McLaren had a very interesting start to the new season. After the qualifying in Bahrain, Norris said that he could have placed his car on the front row, but during the race, he wasn't able to extract much speed from his MCL38.
The British driver finished sixth, while his teammate, Oscar Piastri, placed eighth. However, ahead of the Grand Prix at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, the 24-year-old seems to be quite ambitious.
Already prior to the season, Norris stated that he wants to challenge the best, and with the progress that his team made last year, that may soon become reality.
In Saudi Arabia, the Brit said that Ferrari was "not out of question" as their possible rivals in Jeddah, and neither was Red Bull, even though he expects the Austrian team to be far ahead.

"Ferrari is not out of the question... and neither is Red Bull. I expect them to still be a lot quicker than us and maybe be too far ahead, but you never know, so we'll see tomorrow."

It's clear that Norris wants to finally record his first race victory, but to do that, he will need not only a perfect driving performance, but also support from his team when it comes to the development race.
Although he mentioned only Ferrari and Red Bull, there's also Mercedes in the battle, as George Russell placed ahead of Norris in Bahrain, while Lewis Hamilton was only two seconds behind him.
On top of that, Mercedes struggled with power unit problems in Bahrain, so if McLaren wants to fight for wins and podiums, it's clearly going to be a four-way battle.