Lando Norris believes he currently does not have "the car I need to fight for a championship", despite winning the last two grands prix for McLaren.
The reigning world champion secured an eventually dominant win in the Dutch Grand Prix to record successive victories following his Hungarian GP success before the summer break.
The double victories have moved Norris up to fourth in the drivers' standings on 159 points, and the Briton is now 83 points behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli, and 24 points behind George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, who are currently locked in a tie for second place on 183 points.
After the Zandvoort race, Antonelli, who has 242 points and has won six of the 12 races thus far, claimed that Mercedes no longer had the fastest car in F1 as rivals continue to reel in the W17, which has not had a major upgrade package for a number of races - with Toto Wolff claiming that the team does not "have the money" to bring regular upgrades, in the vein of McLaren, Ferrari, or Red Bull.
Addressing McLaren's chances of mounting a comeback on the Italian to swoop in and steal the title away, Norris explained that the weakness of the MCL40 machine in slow-speed corners was still a major stumbling block, as he claimed that, at present, the equipment under him was not capable of carrying him to a successful defence of his title.
"I don’t want to think of it for now. I just want to enjoy this moment again, enjoy a few days off. I mean, I’m just not thinking of it. I know I have to because you’re asking me; I’m confident because we clearly have a strong car," Norris told media, including RacingNews365, about his confidence for the Italian GP after two successive wins.
"We have a strong car in certain areas. It’s not like last year where we were pretty good everywhere. We’re very, very strong in high speed, and that’s the place we’ve improved the car the most is high-speed performance. No one matches us in high speed, and that’s a good thing.
"My pace advantage to Mercedes in Turns 7, 8 was crazy, but their advantage that they have over us in slow speed is also crazy. And therefore, I don’t have the confidence to say, “Yeah, I can easily fight for a championship for the rest of the season.”
"I know I’ve just won two races in a row and had two poles in a row, but at the minute I don’t have the car I need to fight for a championship. And I know that’s quite a big comment, but I think last year I understood what is needed from a car and what was needed for myself.
"I know the level that I am now and what I know I can perform at, and I know just what I need from the car, and I know what tracks we have coming up where we’re going to certainly struggle more, and I don’t want to struggle more.
"So I’m just doing my part to make sure, as a team, we don’t relax, we don’t get complacent in any way, and we work more than we’ve ever done before, even more than the last two years when we’ve won championships.
"I need the guys and girls to work and focus better than ever before to improve on these areas. If we can improve on these slow speeds, I’m confident that I can win every race this season. If we don’t, then it’s much more difficult to believe so."
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