McLaren could have put up better fight for Miami GP win - Norris

Lando Norris believes McLaren could have offered a stronger fight against Kimi Antonelli for victory in the Miami Grand Prix after being beaten on strategy.

Antonelli managed to undercut race leader Norris during the only round of pit stops, despite Norris holding an advantage of around two seconds prior to Mercedes calling the Italian in first. After following Antonelli for the majority of the rest of the race without being able to launch a firm challenge for the win, Norris believes McLaren left a bit on the table as he finished second.

“I can look at it either way, I guess,” Norris said. “I think I’m just very happy with the situation we’re in, which is we’re fighting for wins or fighting for the win today, [and had] a pole, and the Sprint win. So, I think when I look at it from that side, it’s been a very strong weekend.

“I feel like I’ve done a very good job the whole weekend too, so there’s a lot of positives. And we’ve improved such a big amount, and the fact we’re just fighting for a win, when, if you look at our pace in the races over the last couple, even though we were fighting for podiums and wins, and Oscar was, the pace and the speed we had was certainly not there.

“So, the fact we made such a big step this weekend is great to see and I’m very proud of the team. And all the work that’s been put in has paid off immediately.

“But you always have to look at it and ask yourself the question, do you feel like you maximized everything today? And I’m unsure about that. So, I feel like there was a chance that we could have fought better for it, just not simply letting him undercut us.

“I know he came and passed me on track because he just had the warmer tires out of Turn 2, but we should have just never been in that situation in the first place.

“I’m not saying we would have won the race because I think Kimi drove an excellent race and his pace was very strong, especially his pace end of stints was incredibly strong. So, he might have still passed me later on in the second stint if we boxed earlier, but at least we would have given ourselves a fighting chance, and we didn’t give that to ourselves today. So, I’m a little bit disappointed by that.”

After picking up 26 points out of a maximum of 33 on offer over the race weekend, Norris says he believes McLaren is still slightly behind Mercedes and that he didn’t have a faster car than Antonelli.

“I think we’re talking small margins, but his pace at the end of the stint on the medium was a lot stronger than me, and it was impressive how good they were at the end of stint one. I think we were both pushing flat out for every stint, but he could always then stay a bit closer to me when he was behind me than I could ever kind of get to him when I was behind him.

“I think one of the things that made it always a little bit tough was where our strengths and weaknesses lie. We’re not good enough in the medium speed, which is Turn 4, Turn 5, Turn 6, which is the place that leads on to the longest straight and the place where you can start to make someone defend and you can start to make something happen. And because we’re too weak in the high speed, it was always too difficult to start an attack or start making him do something that could give us a better chance.

“So, I think we’re still missing a little bit, but it can be as little as a tenth, and a tenth isn’t a lot, but a tenth is also a lot on a day like today. So, we have to keep working hard if we definitely want the wins.”