Norris: 'We would have been a lot slower'

Lando Norris finished seventh in France, while teammate Daniel Ricciardo finished ninth. Despite the double points finish, the British team loses a position to Alpine in the constructors' standings. Norris remains positive after the French Grand Prix.

Norris drove a near-perfect qualifying session on Saturday, setting his MCL36 down in fifth place on the grid. In Sunday's race, however, he lost positions and eventually finished seventh, behind Fernando Alonso's Alpine but ahead of Esteban Ocon. Ricciardo finished no further than P9, which means Alpine are now four points ahead of McLaren in the constructors' battle.

Norris lost balance

Despite McLaren losing the spot to Alpine for now, Norris looks back on the race weekend in France positively after he was able to get everything out of the car on Saturday. "It’s helped the car, it’s moved it in the right direction," said the Briton in conversation with F1.com.

"Some of those improvements in balance that I seemed to have for yesterday, I lost today and went away from me, and I just didn’t have the same confidence in the car. Good work by the team; we’d have been a lot slower if we didn’t have [the upgrades]," Norris concluded.