Pierre Gasly, Lando Norris, Bahrain International Circuit, 2019

Norris encouraged by McLaren’s pace compared to Red Bull and Ferrari

RaceFans Round-up

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In the round-up: Lando Norris says McLaren delivered on the potential they showed in Australia with sixth place in Bahrain.

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What they say

Norris finished behind Max Verstappen but ahead of the other Red Bull of Pierre Gasly:

After reviewing Australia we knew we could get points. We managed to beat a Red Bull now on pure pace. And even compared to Vettel, he passed me and then he didn’t pull away that much.

I think our pace on some tracks, here was obviously much better than it was in Australia in terms of relative pace between Mercedes, Ferrari to last place. So I think from that side of things it’s made the racing a lot more fun. I think for the viewers it’s pretty cool as well. It was a good, fun race and we just hope we can be in these positions later on in the season.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

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Last weekend’s racing

British Touring Car Championship: Brands Hatch

World Rallycross Championship: Abu Dhabi

https://youtu.be/nt39gyRdONo

World Touring Car Cup: Morocco

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YNQyP2cua4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn0zY8EFFRQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbzhM0CpzGQ

NASCAR: Bristol

Social media

Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:

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Comment of the day

Last weekend’s Caption Competition was won by @Glynh:

Kevin Magnussen, Haas, Albert Park, 2019

After a year of mysterious accidents the aerial on Grojean’s car starts to make sense.
@Glynh

Thanks to everyone who joined in, especially Nick (@theawesomefish), @david-br, Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution), @ninjabadger and @philipgb who also made great suggestions.

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Craig Woollard!

If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is via the contact form or adding to the list here.

On this day in F1

  • 40 years ago today Gilles Villeneuve dominated the United States Grand Prix West at Long Beach, leading Ferrari team mate Jody Scheckter home by almost half a minute

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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15 comments on “Norris encouraged by McLaren’s pace compared to Red Bull and Ferrari”

  1. Profile Photo

    ColdFly (@)
    8th April 2019, 0:19

    Another week old What They Say quote :(
    Maybe it’s time to merge this item with On This Day :P

    1. Profile Photo

      Jere (@jerejj)
      8th April 2019, 8:49

      @coldfly I agree.

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    Hemingway (@)
    8th April 2019, 1:17

    Wish I could filter all this IndyCar news out.

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      muzbye (@muzbye)
      8th April 2019, 1:40

      +1

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      @HoHum (@hohum)
      8th April 2019, 2:07

      On the other hands I’m glad to see that some tracks have a sweeper, why not F1 ? Best not to let the simulator star drive it though !
      Perhaps you can write some F1 articles for the site to replace Indycar stories.

    3. Profile Photo

      graham228221 (@graham228221)
      8th April 2019, 6:28

      u ok hun?

    4. Gerrit
      8th April 2019, 6:34

      You have a personal filter. It is called the left click button on your mouse. Dont click on the links and you wont see any of that “dreadful” Indycar stuff. Simple really.

    5. RB13
      8th April 2019, 10:35

      On a weekend where there isnt an F1 race of course there’s going to be Indycar news. If you’d rather read ANOTHER story about Toto saying how quick the Ferraris are or Grosjean moaning about something new instead then please feel free to visit another site.

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      stefano (@alfa145)
      8th April 2019, 21:20

      agree

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    Tristan (@skipgamer)
    8th April 2019, 4:49

    You’d think if anywhere drivers would be allowed to get a bit dirty it would be in rallycross… “Pushing and passing” bit of a joke with cars that slippy. Much less attractive after seeing that, I’d rather see a “if you don’t like it don’t be so slow” or “if you think it’s unfair you be the one doing the pushing next time” attitude. Good fun racing and whoever crosses the line first is the winner. There’s plenty of clean racing series and grippy tarmac makes for much better of it.

  4. Profile Photo

    glynh (@glynh)
    8th April 2019, 9:41

    Thanks for the caption @keithcollantine

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    Lenny (@leonardodicappucino)
    8th April 2019, 9:53

    So the WRW truly has gone the way of the Dodo then. It’s a shame, but I don’t mind this integration. I hope we can have some short recaps and not just the videos, maybe with the show spoilers button or similar, ’cause it’s really hard to make out what actually happens from the BTCC highlights

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    Aaditya (@neutronstar)
    8th April 2019, 10:03

    I’ve seen mentions of McLaren’s “Red Bull beating pace” before, but every such story has conveniently brushed off relevant details. Sainz may have been faster than Verstappen in the initial stages, but the latter was struggling on the softs, as he had throughout the weekend. Sainz didn’t seem much faster than the ones behind him.

    Similarly, Norris mentions that he beat one Red Bull on merit, but so did Hulkenberg (on pace at least) and Raikkonen in their Renault and Alfa, respectively. Ricciardo would have as well, if not for his poor strategy. Gasly has been struggling massively with the car so I’m not sure whether he is a good benchmark to compare McLaren’s pace to. It’s the same case of brushing off details when he’s comparing McLaren’s pace to Vettel’s; the latter said his car was very difficult to drive after his spin.

    The entire midfield has seemed to move closer to the top teams this year, not just McLaren. They have a good car, and can fight at the top of the midfield, but their pace at the Bahrain Grand Prix has been overhyped in my opinion.

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    georgeboole (@)
    8th April 2019, 10:30

    @neutronstar I agree. But still we have to admit McLaren is looking much much better than all the previous years. And that kid Lando Norris seems to be good. Leclerc like good.

    1. RB13
      8th April 2019, 10:43

      Norris is definitely better than I thought he would be. I thought his F2 and F3 pace was all down to the fact that he is tiny and must weigh next to nothing BUT with the ballast equalisation he is still doing really well.

      Would love to see George Russel next to Perez in the RP so they could resume their F2 rivalry but i’m sure it will follow in the years to come.

Comments are closed.