Ferrari ‘Got Much Stronger Than We Did’ in 2021 in Battle for Third – Lando Norris

Lando Norris felt he did as much as he could to help the McLaren F1 Team beat Scuderia Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship in 2021, only for bad luck to come into play towards the end of the season.

Nevertheless, the British racer had his best season in Formula 1 to date, securing four podiums in the Emilia Romagna, Monaco, Styrian and Italian Grand Prix, and he was on course to win the Russian Grand Prix – after starting from pole position for the first time – only to be denied by a change in the weather in the closing laps.

McLaren missed out on third to Ferrari by forty-eight and a half points as the Maranello-based squad continued to grow in strength until the end of the year whereas the Woking-based team appeared to fade and drop back a little. 

However, that does not tell the whole story as Norris lost better results in both the Qatar and Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which also lost him fifth place in the Drivers’ Championship to Carlos Sainz Jr.

“There are things for me to improve on again, but I’m happy, it’s still been my most successful season,” Norris is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com.

“Personally, I feel like I did everything I could to give us as a team the best opportunity to go against Ferrari. Although it still didn’t work out, I think how I started the season really put us in that position.

“Ferrari was strong from the very first race, and that’s what people don’t realise. They were super strong from race one. And they just got much stronger than what we did.

“They did a good job, they did a better job than us, and we have to try and do better next season.”