In FIA press conference At Saturday’s Hungarian Grand Prix, Lando Norris was asked the question that was on everyone’s mind. Sure, he had just taken pole position in the MCL38, and with teammate Oscar Piastri qualifying second, McLaren had managed to monopolise the front row for the first time since the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix, with Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton at the wheel. Yes, McLaren have been doing well all week and may have the quickest car this weekend.
But given the team’s close victories this season (Austria and Silverstone spring to mind), how important will it be for McLaren to translate that front row monopoly on Saturday into victory on Sunday?
McLaren The driver slowly grabbed the microphone. The man lying on the couch next to him collected his thoughts and replied eloquently.
“I mean, I don’t think it matters. Every qualifying matters, every race matters,” Norris began. “So it’s not like all of a sudden I have to go and prove my point. It’s not like that. We’ve done our best in every race. I think we’ve shown great pace and great opportunities.”
“And I know we missed some things. We don’t need to redo all that stuff. But, yeah, we want to have a clean, strong weekend. We’ve been very strong already since yesterday, in FP2, FP3 early on in qualifying. So, yeah, hopefully we can get a good turn one and see what happens from there.”
Norris then changed the subject to how many hurdles he and the team will face on Sunday.
“But I don’t have any expectations. I expect the race to be difficult with Oscar and Max behind me. But everything is important. I’m trying to maximise every position, every point,” the McLaren driver added. “And the more we try to catch up with Max, and as a team we try to catch up with Red Bull and the other constructors, the better. So there’s no point or emphasis on trying to beat anyone or anything in particular. I’m just doing a good job and doing what I have to do.”
Norris and McLaren have a golden opportunity to achieve a few things on Sunday. A strong performance from McLaren could see them lock onto the front row and take a win, which could see them overtake Ferrari into second place in the F1 constructors’ championship and perhaps even move a step closer to leaders Red Bull.
But they can also provide a definitive answer to the question that has dogged them from Silverstone to Budapest: ever since McLaren finished third or fourth at the British Grand Prix despite a possible one-two finish because of a number of strategic decisions that ultimately proved wrong, the question has been whether the team was really ready to compete at the front.
Piastri, who sat next to Norris at Saturday’s press conference, was the one who faced those questions on Thursday. He said the team is still learning how to compete at the front and spoke of how much it has grown over the past year.
“So there are a couple of ways. The fact that we have this opportunity in the first place, you know, we’ve had opportunities over the last few months, but our memories are not that short.”Help Piastri on Thursday“And, you know, it was only 12 months ago that we finished P3 and P4 and that was an incredible result for us, so I think we’re still in that position.
“Obviously, you can’t live in that situation forever and you have to realise that we’re in a very different position now than we were before, but the chances were always very different too. Part of the situation was in our control and I think we’ve analysed it well,” Piastri added. “I think a big part of the situation was out of our control as a team, so I think a big part of it is just focusing on what we need to improve ourselves and not getting hung up on what we can’t control.”
Piastri’s answer on Thursday was a powerful reminder of where McLaren has been since the start of the 2023 season, which began with both Piastri and Norris at the back, battling to stay in the race, and, ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in April, Norris explained to me, they were just in a position to fight for points.
By the end of the season they were fighting for the podium.
Now they are fighting for the win.
But there’s a difference between fighting for a win and securing it. As Piastri noted trackside while speaking with Alice Powell, McLaren “isTrying to winMcLaren are aiming to win the championship this season and Sunday will be their best chance to take a step in that direction. With Max Verstappen starting third and Sergio Pérez starting from the back of the grid, McLaren can move much closer to Red Bull on Sunday.
But they need to get the job done.
If they can parlay Saturday’s strong result into victory on Sunday, it will move them even closer to Red Bull and answer all the questions that have been facing them over the past fortnight.
In a resonant way.
