McLaren driver Lando Norris believes Ferrari “definitely has the edge” in the battle for third place in the constructors’ championship after its recent engine upgrade.
Behind this year’s gripping title fight between Red Bull and Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari have been locked in combat all season long to claim P3 in the team standings.
The battle has swung in both outfit’s favour in recent races, with McLaren’s 1-2 finish at Monza seeing it open up a 13.5 lead, but Ferrari has hit back at subsequent events since introducing its upgraded power unit.
At the United States Grand Prix, the Ferraris qualified ahead of both McLarens before it went on to outscore its rivals by four points, with Charles Leclerc finishing nearly 25 seconds clear of Norris’ team-mate Daniel Ricciardo in P4.
Carlos Sainz in the second Ferrari finished in seventh, once position ahead of Norris, meaning McLaren holds a slender 3.5 buffer over the Italian outfit heading to the next race in Mexico.
“I think Ferrari was quite obviously quicker than us,” said Norris, as quoted by Motorsport.com.
“Maybe it doesn’t look it because Carlos was just stuck behind Daniel but if Carlos was ahead of Daniel, he would have pulled away the same as Charles did, so we’ve lacked pace all weekend comparing to the Ferraris.”
Norris admitted Ferrari’s new power unit had made its package more consistent, giving it the upper hand with five races remaining.
Asked if Ferrari’s upgrade had given them the advantage in the fight for third, Norris replied: “It’s definitely just tipped it in that direction for sure.
“They definitely have the edge at the moment. Not quicker in every place but just a car which is more consistent than us and more driveable.
“But that doesn’t change the way we’ll try and keep pushing to stay ahead. It’s not what we want so late in the season, we’ve got to try and do something more to get back ahead of them.”
When asked if he was worried by Ferrari’s improved form, McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl said his team had to accept that it is now on the back foot in the run-in to the end of the season.
“It’s a reality they’ve made a good step forward with their package, also down to the upgrade they introduced on the power unit side,” Seidl said.
“And that gave them a good advantage, especially in these last two races compared to us, so that’s the reality we are in.
“But at the same time, it’s simply important to focus on ourselves; we know that there’s no upgrades coming anymore on the car side or power unit side.
“We know that there’s tracks coming that will probably play a bit more to the strengths of our car, but there are also tracks at the end of the season where we will struggle compared to Ferrari.
“It’s simply important we extract each weekend the maximum out of the package as it is, execute clean weekends, clean races, have a good strategy and then hopefully that’s enough to battle them until the last lap in Abu Dhabi.”
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