McLaren closer to Mercedes than expected - Norris

After finishing second in the Sprint and fighting for pole position, Lando Norris says McLaren is closer to Mercedes than expected at the Canadian Grand Prix.

McLaren brought major updates to Miami and was competitive with Mercedes as Norris led a one-two in the Sprint and battled Kimi Antonelli for the grand prix victory. With Mercedes bringing a package of its own to Montreal, and historically being strong at the track, Norris said he didn’t expect to be in the mix to the extent he has after securing third on the grid, just 0.15s off pole.

“Probably not, mainly because Mercedes always performed very well here, as a standalone event,” Norris said. “Even last year when we were here, we probably quite easily had the best car and Mercedes were still on pole. So, they’ve always just done very well on this type of track.

“With them bringing upgrades, of course, we thought it would be tough to beat them. And the fact we’re not using some of our upgrades, I think we’re very surprised to be even this close. A lot of good signs. It’s nothing bad. It’s a lot of positives considering we’ve not been able to extract everything out of our upgrades just yet.

“It shows that there are still good things to come once we figure them out. So, plenty of positives. But I think to beat the Mercedes around here, considering how strong they’ve been so far this season, is probably a little bit optimistic.”

With wet weather forecast for Sunday’s race at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Norris predicts a chaotic and challenging race for the drivers, but is unsure if it will play into McLaren’s hands.

“We’ve never driven in the rain. I don’t think anyone knows how difficult it’s going to be tomorrow to drive these cars around. Not bad, just how difficult it’s going to be. I mean, it is our job, so I think the expectation obviously should be there, but I think it could be an insanely tricky race.

“It’s difficult enough to get temperature into a soft tire, let alone when it’s 10 degrees colder tomorrow and we’re going to have inters and wets on the car. So [I’m] excited. Very, very excited to see how it’s going to pan out tomorrow.”