Lando Norris insists new floor ‘delivering what the team expects’ despite 0.3s deficit
"If it was a two, three-tenth upgrade, I think we’d easily be P1, but we’re talking about tiny things, and it’s a lot less than probably what people think on the outside."
Lando Norris has insisted McLaren’s new floor upgrade is “delivering exactly what the team expects” despite a 0.3s deficit to Ferrari in F1 qualifying for the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Norris will start Sunday’s race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez from third on the grid.
McLaren led a 1-2 in final practice, but their challenge fell away as qualifying progressed.
The Woking-outfit were comprehensively beaten by Ferrari in Austin last time out, leading McLaren to introduce a new floor upgrade for this weekend.
Even though the gap to Carlos Sainz was around three-tenths, Norris has confirmed the new upgrade is working as intended.
Speaking in the FIA press conference in Mexico, where Crash.net are present in the paddock, Norris said: “Nope, it’s delivering exactly what the team expects. It helps. But yeah.
“If it was a two, three-tenth upgrade, I think we’d easily be P1, but we’re talking about tiny things, and it’s a lot less than probably what people think on the outside.
“When you talk about upgrades, you normally talk about one, two, three-tenths, and it’s not even that. So yeah.”
Norris feels he extracted the maximum from his McLaren in qualifying, admitting he was “at the limit” on his final Q3 lap.
Reflecting on qualifying itself, Norris added: “I was at the limit, I couldn’t go any quicker. It’s more that the others just didn’t get the most out of it. Pretty much every corner, I was close to locking up and making mistakes.
“I did that in my Q3 run one lap, but I had definitely nowhere close to three-tenths left in the car. So it was more that they just went quicker. I was at the limit, I got everything out of the car already in Q1 and Q2.
“Made us look like the ones to beat, but honestly since FP1, Ferrari have been the guys to beat, and Carlos is on top today. Challenging to beat them tomorrow.”
Norris will look to cut Max Verstappen's 57-point lead in the drivers' championship, with the Red Bull driver starting one place ahead in second.
