McLaren goes "into every weekend with an open mind," claims Norris
Having lost out to Red Bull's Max Verstappen atast Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix, Lando Norris claims that McLaren doesn't want to get complacent and goes "into weekends with the expectation that anyone could be there."
Both McLaren drivers endured action-packed opening lap at Monza. Lando Norris was eager to overtake pole-sitter Max Verstappen at the first corner, but the Dutchman cut the chicane to defend his position.
Red Bull asked Verstappen to give back the position to Norris which he quickly did to avoid any possible penalties. However, the McLaren driver was unable to hold on to the lead for long as Verstappen regained it a few laps later.
His team-mate exchanged third spot with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc multiple times on the opening lap. The Monegasque was able to emerge victorious from their first-lap battle, but he was not able to keep the faster McLaren behind for long.
From then on, Norris and Piasti looked set to finish second and third behind the dominant Verstappen. McLaren were aware that Verstappen was out of reach, and they were eager to try something different in terms of strategy.
They extended the first round of pit stop as they were waiting for a potential safety car intervention, which did not come in the end.
Piastri pitted first to defend his position from Leclerc, who was fairly quick on his fresh tyres. When Norris also pitted, McLaren endured an issue which saw thr Briton fall behind his team-mate.
McLaren then took the unsual step of enacting team orders to swap them back around – which is where they came home.
Asked whether McLaren's advantage can make its return at the next race in Baku, Norris refused to guess, claiming that McLaren approaches every weekelok "with the expectation that anyone could be there."
"If you look back at last year, it was pretty close between many people. The Ferraris, as well, were very strong there. We expect them to be good there.
"But it's pointless to guess. We go into every weekend with an open mind. We've been dominant, and I think that's always a positive thing at the end of weekends – it’s when we come out when we’ve had a one-two and sometimes it's a smaller gap, sometimes much bigger.
"But we still go into weekends with the expectation that anyone could be there, whether it is the Ferraris or the Red Bulls, most likely. We still think they could qualify ahead and they could beat us in the races.
"Therefore, we're not too shocked to have lost [at Monza] and to not have been on pole on Saturday. We knew already on Friday, FP1, it was not going to be a great weekend in terms of dominance like we've had.
"You have to look at things on the other side. We've had, you know, 95% have been amazing and we've won by huge gaps. So it just hurts that’s it’s a little bit the other way for once. But when you look at the flip side, there's still a lot more good races than bad.
"So we have to take it on the chin, learn from this weekend, and see what we can improve for the other lower-downforce tracks like Vegas," concluded Norris.
