Motor racing-Ferrari more of a threat than Red Bull, says Norris
By Alan Baldwin
LONDON, Sept 16 (Reuters) -Lando Norris pointed to Ferrari as a bigger threat than Red Bull after his McLaren team roared to the top of the Formula One constructors' standings for the first time in more than a decade.
Oscar Piastri's impressive victory and Norris' fine fourth place with fastest lap, from 15th on the grid, in Azerbaijan on Sunday catapulted McLaren 20 points clear of faltering champions Red Bull.
Ferrari, who had Carlos Sainz crash out with Red Bull's Sergio Perez on the penultimate lap while fighting for third, were the second highest scorers with Charles Leclerc runner-up from pole.
The Italian team, whose last constructors' title was in 2008, are third overall and now only 31 points adrift of the reigning champions.
"Coming into these three races we've got now -- Monza, here and Singapore -- we knew our main contenders would be Ferrari," said Norris, second overall and now 59 points behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen with seven races remaining.
"They've been our strongest competition lately... between Carlos and Charles, they've been two guys who've been performing well and putting us under pressure."
Leclerc won in Monza, after McLaren had locked out the front row of the grid, and then secured pole position in Baku for the fourth year in a row.
Singapore is next up and Sainz won there last year, with Norris second.
"They are performing well and they seem like our closest competition at the minute. So from a constructors' point of view, we're probably more worried about Ferrari than we are about Red Bull," the Briton told Sky Sports television.
MAJOR MILESTONE
McLaren's return to the top of a championship they last won in 1998 marked another major milestone in an already surprising season.
Red Bull had led the standings for 55 races, dating back to early 2022.
The transformation from the start of the year, let alone 2023 which already seems another age, has been astonishing and sent statisticians thumbing through the record books for comparisons.
Last year Red Bull won a record 21 of 22 races and McLaren, who last won a constructors' title in 1998, finished fourth and 558 points behind.
Four teams -- McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes -- have now won at least three races each this season, something that last happened in 1977.
There have also been seven different race winners, the most since 2012.
On Sunday rivals from three teams raced nose-to-tail for the lead around the Baku street circuit, slipstreaming and correcting through corners like racers of old.
Yet Red Bull started the season where they left off, with dire predictions of another title parade.
Norris was eighth and 48 seconds behind winner Verstappen in the Bahrain opener. After round five in China, Verstappen had won four and McLaren were 99 points behind Red Bull.
Then Norris won in Miami and, in a year without major rule changes, the gaps closed.
The last time McLaren were top was after Kevin Magnussen and Jenson Button finished a rogue second and third in the 2014 Australian season-opener in Melbourne, their only podiums of that year.
McLaren scored more points than anyone in 2007 but were stripped after a spying scandal. The team's sole title of the 21st century remains Lewis Hamilton's 2008 drivers' crown.
The team are giving us a car that can go out and win," said Norris. "Think back to the first race of the year, we were behind Mercedes. And now we are a long way ahead of them.
"We have done an amazing job to catch Red Bull. To be outscoring and outpacing them and to be the top team in F1 is something we should be very proud of."
Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Christian Radnedge
Asset collegati
Ultime news
Disclaimer: le entità di XM Group forniscono servizi di sola esecuzione e accesso al nostro servizio di trading online, che permette all'individuo di visualizzare e/o utilizzare i contenuti disponibili sul sito o attraverso di esso; non ha il proposito di modificare o espandere le proprie funzioni, né le modifica o espande. L'accesso e l'utilizzo sono sempre soggetti a: (i) Termini e condizioni; (ii) Avvertenza sui rischi e (iii) Disclaimer completo. Tali contenuti sono perciò forniti a scopo puramente informativo. Nello specifico, ti preghiamo di considerare che i contenuti del nostro servizio di trading online non rappresentano un sollecito né un'offerta ad operare sui mercati finanziari. Il trading su qualsiasi mercato finanziario comporta un notevole livello di rischio per il tuo capitale.
Tutto il materiale pubblicato sul nostro servizio di trading online è unicamente a scopo educativo e informativo, e non contiene (e non dovrebbe essere considerato come contenente) consigli e raccomandazioni di carattere finanziario, di trading o fiscale, né informazioni riguardanti i nostri prezzi di trading, offerte o solleciti riguardanti transazioni che possano coinvolgere strumenti finanziari, oppure promozioni finanziarie da te non richieste.
Tutti i contenuti di terze parti, oltre ai contenuti offerti da XM, siano essi opinioni, news, ricerca, analisi, prezzi, altre informazioni o link a siti di terzi presenti su questo sito, sono forniti "così com'è", e vanno considerati come commenti generali sui mercati; per questo motivo, non possono essere visti come consigli di investimento. Dato che tutti i contenuti sono intesi come ricerche di investimento, devi considerare e accettare che non sono stati preparati né creati seguendo i requisiti normativi pensati per promuovere l'indipendenza delle ricerche di investimento; per questo motivo, questi contenuti devono essere considerati come comunicazioni di marketing in base alle leggi e normative vigenti. Assicurati di avere letto e compreso pienamente la nostra Notifica sulla ricerca di investimento non indipendente e la nostra Informativa sul rischio riguardante le informazioni sopra citate; tali documenti sono consultabili qui.
