05/05/2023
NEWS STORY
Despite only scoring 14 points from the opening four races, Lando Norris insists McLaren's start to the season hasn't been that bad.
Before a wheel had even turned the Woking outfit appeared to be getting in its excuses early with Andrea Stella admitting that the MCL60 wasn't where the team wanted it to be.
Then, following the disappointment of the season opener, the excuses continued, and as the circus moved on to Saudi Arabia there was talk of a revision every bit as significant as that planned at Mercedes.
However, arriving in Miami, Lando Norris, seemingly adopting his best Black Knight, "it's only a flesh wound", insisted that things haven't been as bad as they look.
"I guess we were playing a little bit of catch-up from where we should have been," he told reporters. "But I think we have a good, let's say, baseline to really work from now, more confidence to be able to work from where we are.
"But we've not had a bad year," he added. "I know people keep saying we've had a bad year and such a terrible start and I guess we have, if we want to say we want to win races and so on, but we should have scored points in the first race of the season, we potentially could have scored them in a second. We just got unlucky with the damage and things like that.
"We had a good race in Australia and a better race in Baku," he continued. "So, nothing's bad. I think we are just in that middle spot at the minute and it's close between us and Alpine, AlphaTauri, Haas at times, Alfa Romeo.
"Everyone is there or thereabouts so it's just a close battle. One day we'll look a bit better and the next day we'll look a little bit worse but it's enjoyable."
Asked about the coming weekend, he replied: "I guess similar to where we were. I don't expect too many more things. The car is the same as last weekend, so maybe just trying to understand the new parts that we brought to Baku, which I think we have, so maybe exploit them a little bit more.
"The rest is just trying to get a couple of points. You know, we have four teams that are considerably ahead of where we are. Every now and then we can maybe get close, but it comes to the race and they are another league compared to us.
"So we are kind of fighting for ninth and 10th at the minute, which doesn't sound like a lot, but the small points will add up."
Check out our Friday gallery from Miami here.