Lando Norris takes aim at ‘people coming out with c**p’ over McLaren’s advantage

Lando Norris has hit out at critics for overhyping McLaren’s pace advantage over Red Bull and Ferrari following the F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

McLaren scored their fourth win in five races as Oscar Piastri came out on top at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

Norris recovered from his Q3 crash, which left him 10th on the grid, to narrowly miss out on a spot on the podium.

It’s McLaren’s best start to an F1 season since 1998, when they also won four of the opening five races.

Speaking after the race in Jeddah, Norris was keen to shift the narrative around McLaren’s advantage this year by claiming their rivals are much closer than many people think.

“No. I don’t get why people are so surprised,” Norris said of Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc’s races in Saudi Arabia.

“They’re just as quick in quali as in most sessions, they’re as quick as us in the race. People just because we’re quick in practice people just keep coming out with all this crap.

“They can keep saying what they want. We don’t believe we’re much ahead as shown. I think Max was probably the quickest out there today if he didn’t have that five-second penalty. We have work to do.

“People keep saying that we’re the best, quicker or blah blah blah. It’s just because we show a bit more pace in practice and we don’t have anything left when it gets to quali. That’s our way of doing things.

“That’s how we optimise things. If we didn’t do it that way we’d be even further back. I am happy with the work we’re doing. People need to recalibrate… we have a great car and probably the quickest on average, for sure. Clearly, not enough.”

Lando Norris “pleased” with recovery

Norris enjoyed a strong race to bounce back from his latest setback.

The British driver lost control of his McLaren during the tight Turn 4-5 sequence in qualifying.

It was yet another mistake from Norris following an error-strewn Bahrain Grand Prix last weekend.

On the whole, Norris was pleased to recover to fourth.

“I think it’s the best we could have done today. It was a shame to miss out on a podium,” Norris added.

“We got close. It’s always hard to judge those things. Charles drove a good race. He had a good first stint. He gave himself that opportunity to have a decent set of tyres in the second half. I think I only boxed five laps after maybe. Not enough to get him.

“I am pleased on the whole. I make life tough for myself, especially in a race like that. It would have been much racer, a lot more chilled to just drive at the front. In some ways it’s a bit easier so I’ve got to help myself out a little bit and have better Saturdays.”