Speaking to the media ahead of this week's race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Lando Norris pinpointed one team he believes will have a slight edge in the battle for victory.
Coming to the ninth round of the 2024 season- the Canadian Grand Prix- it is very difficult to predict the race winner, as opposed to last season (which was dominated by Red Bull and Max Verstappen).
Red Bull's motorsport advisor Helmut Marko said it himself: other teams (Ferrari and McLaren) have caught up, and the Austrian team's dominance is over.
Marko went as far as to say Red Bull are not the favorites for the victory this weekend. So, which team has the highest chance of winning? Lando Norris gave his opinion on Thursday during press day.
"I think they [Ferrari] are favorites. Kerb riding is a big part around here, but it's going to be close."
The 24-year-old emphasized how close everything is, which is what makes this race weekend super exciting from the perspective of fans, but based on the characteristics of the car, he proposes Ferrari as a slight favorite.
"It's impossible for me to say if it's going to be us or Ferrari or Red Bull on top, so I think that's why it's exciting; none of us really know, and it's just going be very close – it has been the last three or four weeks."
"But Ferrari, I'd probably put as the favorites because of decent straight-line speed. I know they complain a bit, but just try putting a little bit less rear wing on sometimes, and that's about it."
While Norris identified Ferrari as the favorite, he might be distracting attention from his team, which came incredibly close to winning all three of the last three races.
In Miami, Norris actually won. In Imola, both McLarens missed out on the pole because Verstappen profited from a slipstream on his flying lap, and in Monaco, Oscar Piastri could have been on the pole yet again but lost it in the final corner.
What is clear is that the Papaya team also has a super quick all-around car that seemed to perform very well even on tracks where they didn't expect it to. Norris added:
"When you look at where they were last weekend, even where we were, you know, Oscar theoretically should have been on pole – he had the best sectors altogether."
"So when you look at it like that, then you say maybe we should have been and that kind of thing. But as an all-round car, I think they probably have one that suits this track best, we'll find out tomorrow."
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