Lando Norris laments “tough day” at the French Grand Prix: “We weren’t as quick as we needed to be”

McLaren F1 Team’s Lando Norris struggled with a lack of pace and high tyre degradation at the French Grand Prix, and was ultimately unable to build from his fifth place starting position and ultimately finished in seventh.

With the team finding themselves in a performance deficit to their nearest competitors recently, Norris “expected” to have trouble battling for the sharp end of the points.

“Tough day but I think it was what we expected. It was a long race and we struggled a little bit with the degradation of the tyre but also just with the pure pace.

“We weren’t as quick as we needed to be, so yeah, just tough but I won’t say disappointed. It’s sort of what we were expecting, so not a surprise.”

Norris said that the team will look to make the most of the upgrades they brought to France at the next race weekend in Hungary, as they are motivated to improve upon their current standing as summer break nears. 

“We’ll keep pushing, keep trying to improve, and we’ll go again next weekend. Thanks again to all the team here and at the factory for their efforts.” 

“I felt like I did the best that I could – but it’s not enough to make me happy” – Daniel Ricciardo

Team-mate Daniel Ricciardo was not entirely pleased with his ninth place result, saying that he was not able to keep up the pace that he had early in the race to compete with Norris and BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon.

“It’s points so that’s a positive. It’s only ninth but still important. I had a bit of pace early in the stint and tried to get more out of it, but then it fell away a little too quickly so I definitely struggled from mid-stint onwards and didn’t have the pace to run with the Alpines and Lando. 

Ricciardo said that he put in his best effort, but was left unsatisfied with his result at Circuit Paul Ricard. He will continue to fight for further improvement as the team will look to optimise their new upgrades. 

“I felt like I did the best that I could – but it’s not enough to make me happy. Thanks again to everyone for the hard work in getting the upgrades to track this weekend and we’ll push to get more out of them over the next few races. Double-points but we’ll keep working.”