Norris concedes McLaren are ‘not quick enough’ after settling for P3 in Zandvoort Sprint

Lando Norris believes that McLaren are “not quick enough” with their current set-up in Zandvoort, where he dropped behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and clung onto the final podium position during the Sprint.

The reigning World Champion missed out on pole position by just 0.041s to Mercedes’ George Russell, but the small margin suggested that he may have been able to fight for victory over the 24-lap event.

Although he started well and stayed close to the leader, his pace gradually fell away and he reported that he had “no rear”, allowing Leclerc to reduce the gap before he eventually took the inside line at Turn 1 and sailed past on Lap 18.

Norris was then at the mercy of Kimi Antonelli, who ultimately couldn’t find a way to improve to the podium and crossed the line in fourth place behind the McLaren driver.

Reflecting on the Sprint, Norris said: “Not a bad result. Not the best – would’ve been nice to be a little bit faster today but Charles was just too quick. I don’t think it was the tyres, we just lacked pace. We’re not quick enough and we have some work to do.

“We’re very good in high speed, just the car’s not performing to the level it needs to in the slow-speed corners. There’s not a lot we can do.

"I think we’re optimising a lot of things. It’s still a good result.

“I think we still have to be happy with the progress we’ve been making but we need more. We’ll see what we can do, we’ll work hard. The team are working hard already so hopefully we can do a better job.”

While Norris didn’t lose out to Antonelli, his team mate Oscar Piastri did, with the Australian demoted to P5 on the opening lap. He struggled to make progress from there and couldn’t keep up with the top-four, finishing over 10s behind Russell.

Track position was key in the Sprint, so on a weekend where McLaren have introduced another upgrade package, they will be hoping that they can find some more performance ahead of Qualifying at 1600 local time.

“The start was a bit average,” Piastri admitted. “Charles went a lot more to the inside than I thought he was going to. I just got pinched in behind him. But the pace wasn’t great either for both cars, it looked like, so some work to do.”