Norris nuances season start: 'First eight positions are already taken'

Lando Norris sums up his season start with McLaren differently from how 'all the media' are doing. According to the Brit, the start was not that bad. The expectations were just higher and there was bad luck.

Norris told this to GPBlog and other media after the sprint race in Baku. The McLaren driver finished the main race of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in P9, scoring points for the second time in a row. Ten points from four races could be classed as a poor result for the McLaren driver, and most would agree. Norris thinks it is not that bad.

Norris nuances poor performance McLaren

The Brit explained to the media present: "It's not being too bad, but you guys write about it all the time. It has been tough, we've also been unlucky. I should have finished tenth maybe in Bahrain, that would be one point in the beginning of the season. With Aston Martin performing so well, there are eight cars that are probably in a league of their own at the minute."

"Every now and then another car, like Alpine in Australia, is really quick," continued Norris. "Yesterday in qualifying. We were there or thereabouts. We were a little bit quicker than the Mercedes yesterday, today not so. But there is eight cars, eight positions pretty much gone." So when you look at it like that and the rest of the field only has a chance at the two points that go with P9 (P1 to P8 go to Red Bull Racing, Ferrari, Mercedes and Aston Martin), Norris has still done well with his ten points.

Norris calls it bad luck

"In Bahrain we had a DNF, which made things look a lot worse than the way they were. In Saudi Arabia, the pace wasn't too bad. Maybe we weren't quite as competitive, but we had the front wing damage on both cars. You guys are right about it; this looks like a disaster." The picture has been nuanced by Norris and the car performance may not be that bad, but so few points (14) after four races for a team that wants to compete for podium must be a bummer.

Norris: "At the same time, I know where we should be and where we should have been." Norris defends his argument. Bad luck has meant that the team has yet to consistently show its true potential. Now that the top group has expanded from three to four teams with Aston Martin, McLaren is still the best of the rest. Alpine is six points behind, but that is largely due to the double crash in Australia.