George Russell says McLaren’s upgraded car could make Lando Norris a genuine contender at this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix.
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McLaren turned heads with a major aerodynamic upgrade introduced at the Austrian Grand Prix two months ago. Since then the MCL60 has shown particular pace in high-speed corners, and Suzuka features several of the fastest turns on the calendar.
At last weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix McLaren brought another update aimed at improving performance through slower corners. Team principal Andrea Stella said he was keen to see how the car handles Suzuka’s only low-speed sections, the hairpin and the chicane.
Although Red Bull are expected to return to their usual form after a disappointing Singapore weekend, Russell believes Norris could challenge them.
“I think we’ve definitely got a good chance on Sunday,” the Mercedes driver told the official F1 website. “I think Ferrari will be quick again on quali performance. Lando’s potentially one of the favourites for this weekend with their high-speed performance in the McLaren. But all the question marks are on Red Bull.”
Max Verstappen also expects McLaren to be strong in Japan.
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“Honestly what they have done this year is quite impressive, from where they started to where they are now,” Verstappen said. “So I would for sure expect them to be strong but of course I hope to be ahead.”
The Red Bull driver is confident his team can bounce back from Singapore. “It was not our strongest weekend, of course, but it’s important that now we just analyse everything and step by step I think we’ll get there,” he said. “But there’s also no real rush. Singapore is so, so different to what we will experience here in terms of the way you set up the car. So I’m also not worried that will upset our weekend here.”
Verstappen added that Red Bull’s simulator performance for Suzuka “felt very nice,” and said that is usually a good sign when translates to real-track performance.
Norris described it as “tough to say” whether McLaren’s recent upgrades will let them fully match Red Bull, who had won every race before last weekend.
“I want to believe so,” he said. “I think everything did what it was meant to do and I think we definitely took some steps forward. I don’t think that we’re confident in saying we’re as quick as Red Bull. I think Red Bull will probably be dominant this weekend.”
He acknowledged McLaren’s strengths vary by circuit. “Comparing us to Ferrari and Mercedes, Mercedes have been just a lot more consistent than what we have, we still fluctuate quite a bit. On a good weekend we can be very, very good, maybe a little bit ahead like we’ve seen in Silverstone and things like that. But on the whole Mercedes have probably been the second-best car this season, then Ferrari and then us so far. So we’re getting there but it’s still a very different circuit to Singapore with these upgrades. There’s a lot for us to find out and analyse from Suzuka.”
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