Lando Norris delivers frank McLaren verdict as team searches for increased performance

McLaren driver Lando Norris has said that the car isn’t where the team wants it to be in terms of performance after a tough weekend in Canada.

The McLaren MCL36 has been a little up and down in terms of pace with a good double points finish in Australia for example, before results like the one in Montreal last time out where both Daniel Ricciardo and Norris finished outside of the top 10.

Indeed, it was a weekend Lando would rather forget with the car starting in the bottom half of the grid for the race and then never really threatening to break into the top half over the course of the Grand Prix.

Speaking after the chequered flag, the British driver could not hide his disappointment at the result, either, with him saying that ultimately right now the car does not have the performance that it needs to challenge up at the right end consistently:

“The car’s not good enough,” Norris said.

“At times it’s strong. I was a little bit more optimistic after Friday, that we could achieve more.

“But when I was stuck behind the Williams, they’re so fast, probably the quickest in the straights and we’re probably the slowest in the straights, and then it’s literally impossible to overtake so we can’t do anything.

“It’s just not… anywhere where we want it.

“A day like today is probably a good thing that shows we’re a long way off and we have to keep working very hard, keep trying a lot of different things.

“Maybe at times things look great but it’s never really genuine pace, a day like today where it’s more simple and we don’t have luck on our side shows where we’re at.”

Plenty of teams have had up and down years so far with the new regulations providing plenty of issues for the engineers to try and get their heads around.

McLaren have