Lando Norris insists that the McLaren MCL60 is not as bad as people are saying it is.

Even before testing got underway, the talk coming out of Woking was negative, with Andrea Stella admitting that the team wasn't "entirely happy" with the car at the time of its launch. Indeed he went on to say that "over the course of the season, we would like to establish ourselves as part of the top four".

Once testing was underway the team was beset with issues, not least wheel brows that wouldn't remain in place, and a reoccurrence of the brake issues seen in 2022, and as a result had the worst record in terms of mileage.

As a result the team has essentially resorted to the "things will only get better" mantra.

Speaking in Bahrain, Lando Norris sought to play down the negativity.

"I don't think we are in a terrible place as it is," he said. "We are maybe not as strong as we want to be, but we are also not as bad as people are expecting.

"I don't want to speak too early," he continued, "because at the same time we have to wait and see how we are going to do. We have some good things in the pipeline, so I look forward to all of that.

"We also have to execute them and make sure they work properly and so on," he added. "But it's a long season, so I look forward to the latter part at the same time."

In an open letter to fans of the team, Zak Brown, wrote: "Rest assured, improving our performance over the course of the season is a key priority and the team are working together to bring further developments to the track as soon as possible. That said, we know there is more that we can get out of the existing package."

"I have no idea how we're going to do," admitted Norris as he looked ahead to the weekend. "I guess we are not up there with the top teams, but I think we are up there fighting for some points hopefully, so that's our goal this weekend."

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