McLaren teammates disagree over car advantage

Apr.22 (GMM) They are yet to have a major on-track clash, but off the track, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri do not see eye-to-eye on one particular topic.

After crashing in qualifying and then finishing P4 in the Saudi Arabian GP, former championship leader Norris insisted that McLaren may no longer be the fastest car in Formula 1.

However, he says that’s no surprise to him.

“No, it’s not surprising,” Norris said.

“They (Red Bull) are just as fast as us in qualifying and in the race too,” said the Briton, whose teammate Piastri won at Jeddah and took over the points lead.

“Just because we are fast in practice, people are saying all kinds of nonsense,” Norris added. “Let them say what they want. We don’t believe that we have much of an advantage. I actually think Max (Verstappen) would have been the fastest in the race if he hadn’t had that penalty.

“People keep saying we are the best, we are the fastest, blah blah blah. But that is only because we show a bit more pace in practice – and then it’s over in qualifying. That’s our way of doing things. That’s how we believe we optimise things.

“If we didn’t do it that way, we’d be even further behind.”

Norris, therefore, left Jeddah not only vowing to work on minimising his own mistakes, but declaring that McLaren also has “work to do”.

“We suffer on a track like this,” he said. “We suffer with DRS compared to the other teams. We’re not fast enough on the straights.”

When asked about his teammate’s remarks, championship leader Piastri had a straightforward answer as to whether he agrees: “No,” the Australian smiled.

“I think our car is still quicker. Max was quicker than I expected for sure, and clearly we’ve got some work to do, but I think our car is still very good. I think we still have an advantage.

“I don’t think it’s as big on surfaces like this and layouts like this, but we still have a very strong car at the moment.”

However, McLaren CEO Zak Brown sides a little more with Norris’ perspective – including the concept that while Red Bull tend to use less engine power on Fridays, McLaren take a different approach.

“You never know who’s using which strategy in practice,” he told Sky Deutschland. “Our race pace is better than on a single lap. We’re strong on a single lap, too, but Max is strong, a great driver, and so are Mercedes and Ferrari.

“You can certainly assume that all four will win races this year,” Brown added.

So while Norris and Piastri disagree off-track, Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko thinks the real advantage for Verstappen’s team is that the orange-coloured duo are both in contention for the world championship.

“I doubt either of them will submit to any team orders,” he told ORF, “and it’s actually a great opportunity for us to have them fight each other.

“We prefer it if one wins alternately, then the other,” Marko smiled.