Norris: I hope we can get closer to Ferrari

Lando Norris finished on the podium in Melbourne, behind only two Ferrari drivers, and has to admit that McLaren will probably also trail the Scuderia in Japan. But this does not affect the fighting spirit of the British team.

Lando Norris: “Such results contribute to the good mood of the team. The weekend in Australia went well for us, it gives everyone extra strength and everyone wants to achieve new good results. It is important that we were able to stand on the podium at the beginning of this year.

I think we can continue what we started last year, although Ferrari has taken a clearer step forward. We have to admit that this team has done a great job, although we probably managed to close the gap on Red Bull a little bit and at the same time widen the gap with the teams behind us.

But Ferrari was also fast last year, as they also won pole positions six or more times. Although McLaren was second fastest on average at the end of last season, we were behind the Scuderia in many races.

They have managed to solve a number of problems, especially by improving the car’s performance on fast parts of the track, and their SF-24 is very competitive. And at low speeds, Ferrari cars functioned perfectly in previous years, so now they generally perform well. Our problems are of the opposite nature: McLaren cars have always handled high speeds well, but at relatively low speeds we started to have problems. This is exactly what we are trying to find out now.

It is clear that Red Bull will also be in the lead this weekend, but I hope we can get closer to Ferrari. Of course, we dream of beating them, but it will be very difficult to do this, because in Suzuka there are also slow corners, and in them the Ferraris will be very fast.

We have a lot to work on, but I’m in a good mood and I hope we have a good weekend.”