McLaren F1’s discreet MCL38 shakedown hints at a strategic start, with Lando Norris showing strong optimism for the upcoming season.
McLaren F1 discreetly conducted the shakedown of their MCL38 at Silverstone yesterday, following a presentation in which the team attempted to conceal several details about their car. Lando Norris, however, displays unwavering optimism ahead of this new season.
“Compared to the last few years, I think we’re in a much better position,” Norris stated. “It’s good for me, good for the whole team, just for confidence and everyone’s motivation.”
“You never want to start a season without expecting to do well, and I think for the first time in a long while, we’re coming here prepared as we should be as a Formula 1 team.”
Norris Optimistic for Season’s Challenges
“I’m eager to get started. There are a lot of question marks, things we need to try to understand and so on, but I’m excited to go back to Bahrain, to push the boundaries and see really what we can achieve.”
“If we can at least start where we finished and get into the fight for, I mean, the top spot, I’m sure Red Bull will start strong, and I think if we can be in that battle with Ferrari, with Mercedes and maybe others, and just be close, I’m confident we can make progress.”
The British driver’s optimism is such that he believes they can consistently match Red Bull: “If you ask whether they’re beatable, you have to say yes. I think we’d like to believe so, because we’ve been very close at times, and at times we’ve beaten them.”
“So the question is whether we can beat them over a season. Because I think that’s going to be the hardest part and I think it will be very hard to do given their performance. So, I’m optimistic. Is it possible to beat them at times? I want to believe so, yes.”
Piastri explains how to beat Red Bull
Norris’s teammate, Oscar Piastri, is convinced that McLaren can go fight against Red Bull. According to him, the condition for this will be to continue the progression seen last year at the same pace during the season.
“You have to be optimistic and believe that we can beat Red Bull. As Lando said, we’ve been very close at times, with some success in certain sessions. So I think if we manage to maintain the same rate of development, we can be very optimistic,” notes Piastri.
However, the Australian is aware that McLaren is not the only team aiming at Red Bull: “I think we also need to be aware that we’re not just fighting against Red Bull, we were in a very intense battle with Mercedes and Ferrari, especially in the second half of the year.”
“In the second half of the season, it was incredibly tight between us, and we are all teams that have had a lot of success at different stages. So I think we need to be cautious, it’s not just Red Bull we’re fighting against, and I think there are other top teams that are also making progress.”
McLaren Confident in Beating Red Bull. McLaren Confident in Beating Red Bull
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