Norris and Sainz realised “the best thing is to work together” for McLaren

Lando Norris says that he and McLaren teammate Carlos Sainz realised that to benefit themselves and the team in the long run “the best thing is to work together” as they look to move further than their P4 finish in the championship from 2019.

Norris and Sainz developed one of the most entertaining partnerships through 2019 and along with it came McLaren’s best season of recent times as they cemented themselves as ‘best of the rest’ behind Mercedes, Ferrari and Aston Martin Red Bull Racing.
 
The Briton recorded 49 points in his rookie season to finish 11th in the drivers standings and feels the team wouldn’t have had the season they did if it weren’t for his and the Spaniards relationship.

“We’re both looking at the longer game of ‘if we both want to achieve what we want to achieve, which is to win races, to win championships, the best thing is to work together’” he said at Autosport International 2020.

“We wouldn’t have finished P4 in the championship as a team if we didn’t work as well together as we did last year.

“A big part of what we have achieved is because of how we work together, how we help each other, how we try and help the team.

“At the moment, it’s only benefiting us in every way.

“I hope it continues because I just want to have fun and enjoy it and he does as well.”

Throughout last year McLaren struggled with cornering, something that Norris and the team are working on improving with their 2020 car as they aim to close the gap to the top three.

“Things aren’t as different as what they were last year,” he added.

“Last year was a completely different car, with a lot of mechanical problems.

“And you don’t always hear about every problem that goes on in a team and in Formula 1. But we were kind of suffering a bit at the beginning of last year.

“Whereas this year’s car is much more of an adaptation from last year. It’s just working on all of the areas.

“But also the team has done a very good job and [is] working on, particularly obviously the areas which we were not good [at] last year – that we were quite weak in.

“Which was almost every corner but there’s still more specific corners, which we struggled in.

“So it’s trying to work on those areas and, from the results I’ve seen, it’s looking positive. It’s going in the right direction, but we still need more to be really competitive.”