Lando Norris: Only McLaren has two good drivers.
On Thursday in Japan, Lando Norris made a bold statement – the British racing driver believes that at the moment McLaren is the only team in Formula 1 with "two good drivers." According to Lando, this is a key factor that gave McLaren an advantage at the beginning of the season.
Lando Norris: "I'm sure we're strong on every track at the moment, but over the last week and a half we've heard about half the competitors say they're not that far behind us anymore.
But no matter what Max Verstappen says... yes, he was fast in the sprint in China, but still Red Bull are not as good as us, although they have become more competitive. Frederic Wasser believes that Ferrari is able to compete with us and stay ahead of us. They were stronger in the sprint, but we were ahead in qualifying.
People can say what they want, but we are the only team that has two good drivers at the moment. And because of this, we have such an advantage. If one of us hadn't been so strong, we would have had the same situation as at Ferrari and Red Bull. Max struggles, but his partner is far behind.
That's why I think McLaren is ahead thanks to two good drivers, even though we don't always have the fastest car, like we did in the sprint in China, qualifying or in the race. But the fact that two good drivers are pushing each other forward makes a big difference to the results.
Take, for example, Ferrari. McLaren lacks experience compared to them, but we have two drivers who understand the team because they have been racing together for a long time. For Lewis Hamilton, everything is new at Ferrari, and he openly said that he was getting used to working with a new steering wheel. I don't mean that he learns how to turn correctly, but he learns all the functions that are on the steering wheel.
Can he get the most out of the car in such a situation compared to me or Oscar? No, and he openly admits it.
I'm not saying that I'm much better than Lewis or Charles Leclair, because I'm not, and I'm the first to admit it. I've never called myself the best racer of all time. But the way my partner and I work together makes our team better than everyone else, and that's our advantage."
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Lando Norris: Only McLaren has two good drivers.
On Thursday in Japan, Lando Norris made a bold statement – the British racing driver believes that at the moment McLaren is the only team in Formula 1 with "two good drivers."