Norris 'Optimistic' McLaren Will Be Able To Beat Red Bull 'At Certain Times' In 2024
F1Friday, 16 February 2024 at 16:00
Lando Norris's ambition going into the 2024 season is to win his first Grand Prix of the season, and he asserted he believes his team can beat Red Bull at certain times.
McLaren made tremendous development progress throughout the most recent season, almost catching up with Red Bull in the last few races.
The Papaya team's rivals took notice, and even Max Verstappen suggested he expects McLaren to be the biggest threat to Red Bull Racing's success in 2024.
At this point, all the teams have launched their cars and tried them on track, so the drivers have a slight idea of how much progress they have made ahead of the season.
Lando Norris tried his McLaren on track at Silverstone two days ago, on the 14th of February, following his team's official launch of their 2024 challenger, MCL38. Asked about his chances of competing against Red Bull, he said:
"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 [last year], and at certain times, we did beat them."
Red Bull also unveiled their car yesterday, and it is not a subtle evolution that everyone expected. The team from Milton Keynes made some bold and aggressive changes to their car.
At this point, it is tough to say just how much of the pace Red Bull will be able to add based on these changes, but the same goes for McLaren's new car. We must wait for the season's first race in Bahrain to see the actual comparison.
"The question is, can we beat them over a season? I think that’s going to be the challenging thing, and I think it’s going to be very difficult to do with how well they’re performing."
While the 24-year-old is aware of the immense challenge that his team faces, he suggested he is optimistic McLaren can beat Red Bull multiple times this year.
"So yeah, [I’m] optimistic. [Is it] possible to beat them at certain times? I want to believe so, yeah."
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