Lando Norris: Overtaking Max Verstappen with low-downforce Red Bull wing will be “tough”

McLaren driver Lando Norris believes passing Max Verstappen on a straight will be “tough” in the British Grand Prix, after Red Bull switched to a low-downforce rear wing ahead of qualifying.

Four-time Formula 1 champion Verstappen stunned the opposition by taking pole position at Silverstone on Saturday, edging out McLaren duo Oscar Piastri and Norris to the top spot by just over a tenth of a second.

Red Bull had struggled at the start of the weekend in practice, but an overnight change focused on improving the RB21’s performance in a straight line boosted the team’s fortunes and allowed Verstappen to claim his fourth pole position of the season.

The benefit of the new rear wing is expected to be more pronounced in race conditions, particularly if weather remains dry.

Norris expects it will be difficult to catch and pass Verstappen on the straights but remains hopeful McLaren can find other opportunities to challenge for what would be the team’s ninth win of the year.

“It's hard, honestly, to know until you get behind and you have the dirty air and DRS and things like that,” he explained in the post-race press conference.

“To be honest, at the minute, our DRS speed probably just about matches Max's speed. So, I think it'll be tough because we’ll probably catch him in the high speed, but we just won't really close much when we open the DRS.  I think it can be tough, but there's also probably more opportunities than a normal race.

“Between everyone, we're fast and slow in different places. You look at Red Bull Ring and you say Red Bull Ring is high-speed, but comparing to Silverstone, it's quite medium-speed.

“Here is definitely high-speed, and it's probably highlighted a few more of our weaknesses. We've performed very well in the slower and medium-speed tracks, some of the higher speed, we’re not bad, but we always seem to lose out to Max and the Red Bull, like Oscar said, in Japan, here, things like that.

“So, clearly things to work on. But we go into the race tomorrow, there's still plenty of opportunity for us.”

Norris’ teammate Piastri was surprised to see the RB21 perform well even in high-speed corners despite the way Red Bull had configured the car.

As such, he believes there is no clear favourite between Red Bull and McLaren heading into Sunday’s race.

“It's hard to know at the moment,” he said. “For us, what's been impressive is some of the high-speed performance that they can continue with, even with the light downforce. So, let's wait and see tomorrow. Of course, I hope that the higher downforce works a bit better in a few areas, but honestly, we really won't know until tomorrow.

“It's also been interesting with other teams, it's not always just been the higher the downforce you have the quicker you are in all the corners. [In] some of the corners we’re still slower than the Red Bull and Max. So, it's not that straightforward, but I think it's going to be an interesting thing to see tomorrow.”