"We want to be towards the top" - Lando Norris advices McLaren to follow Ferrari and Aston Martin's route to glory

Lando Norris has urged McLaren to take inspiration from Aston Martin and Scuderia Ferrari, two teams who have made big leaps forward in recent years.

After finishing the 2021 season without a single win and in sixth position in the Constructors' standings, Ferrari bounced back last year by winning four races to finish second in the standings.

In 2023, Aston Martin seem to have made a similar jump in performance. After finishing seventh last year, they made it to the podium (through Fernando Alonso) at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

Though McLaren are currently struggling to string together decent results, Norris has backed his team to deliver in the future. He said (via PlanetF1):

“Where did I want to be? It’s clear, but where we all want to be is clear: we want to be towards the top. I think that’s everyone’s dream, it’s every team’s dream in the whole grid but when you’re realistic, it’s between where we are now and those top four teams currently.”

The 23-year-old added:

“So I think what Aston have done is this clear example and what Ferrari did between ’21 and ‘22 was a clear example of what we need to achieve and want to achieve. And it’s clear that it’s achievable. So we just got to go out and do it.”

While he acknowledged that McLaren aren't performing as well as they can, he has put faith in the team to turn things around. He said:

“I think we have the people, we have so many things that we need. We’re not doing a good enough job with what we have but we all know that and we know that we have some more things coming but at the same time, we have to do better than what we’re doing currently.”

Norris is set for a tough Saudi Arabian GP after he clipped the wall in the final corner during Q1 and reported steering damage. He is set to start P19 on Sunday (March 19).

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Lando Norris shuts down suggestions that lack of infrastructure is responsible for McLaren's struggles

Lando Norris has stated that McLaren should be doing much better with the facilities they have at their disposal.

McLaren finished last at the Bahrain GP, with Norris pitting six times due to a mechanical issue, while his teammate Oscar Piastri retired after 13 laps. In Saudi Arabia, Norris qualified P19 while Piastri is 10 spots ahead in P9.

Contrary to talk that the lack of infrastructure has led to McLaren's struggles this season, Norris told media, including Sportskeeda, at the Saudi Arabian GP press conference:

"Yeah, infrastructure always helps but we should be doing better than we are now with what we have. That's also clear. We'll see. I think there are things you can achieve during the season. Harder to achieve them during the season than during the winter but there's no huge changes."