Norris expects two “very tough” rounds for McLaren at tracks which suit rivals

McLaren’s Lando Norris expects the next two rounds in Mexico and Brazil will prove “very tough” for his car and could suit rivals Mercedes and Aston Martin.

Norris arrives at Mexico City having secured top three finishes in the last four rounds of the championship. He finished third but inherited second place from Lewis Hamilton’s disqualification at last weekend’s United States Grand Prix.

Despite his run of success, Norris does not expect to return to the podium this weekend or at next weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix.

“I think going to two very tough weekends coming up – both here and Brazil,” he admitted. “Very few medium-high speed corners. A lot of very slow speed, second gear, third gear, which is just where we’re very weak.

“I think the main thing is there’s no strengths of our car here this weekend. Maybe a bit of straight line braking. There’s no medium-high speed, which is where we are very competitive. It’s where we get a lot of time back.

“In races, for example, we’ve always had to push high-speed, which is not something you necessarily want to do. But to make up for a lack of slow-speed performance we have to push in high-speed, which causes more tyre temperature, more degradation. So it’s two things that go wrong for us very quickly. If it’s cool, you get away with it. But when it was as hot as, say, Texas was, it’s what led to our slightly worse performance on a Sunday.”

Norris says the McLaren’s performance at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez will appear average in comparison to recent circuits that have flattered their car.

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“I think what’s going to make it maybe a bit trickier is just our contrast of the last few weekends have been so good,” He said. “They have been tracks which have suited us and always in the past have kind of suited us reasonably well and Texas generally kind of hasn’t. So I think we’re just going to see maybe a little contrast.”

The Mexican and Interlagos circuits not suiting McLaren may instead play into the hands of some of their rivals, Norris believes.

“You’re going to see Aston, for example, I think are going to be very competitive here,” Norris said. “Mercedes, I think they’re going to be very competitive here.

“It’s just because it’s a lot of stop-start, second gear, third gear, second gear corners where you just can easily lose a lot of lap time through 2-3kph minimum speed. You lose a lot of lap time.

“I think we’ve always been clear when we said tracks were going to be good or bad [for us]. It’s nice when you’ve had surprises when we’ve actually done a bit better, but I think we know the ones which we’re definitely going to struggle with and have kind of always struggled a little bit which is here in Brazil.”

McLaren’s prospects for the concluding pair of races, including the new event at the Las Vegas Strip Circuit, are harder to assess, says Norris.

“The final two races really are a question mark. I think we’re going to maybe not be quite as strong and you’re going to see some of our competitors. I’d say mainly Aston will probably step back up and be competitive again.”

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