Lando Norris shares which rival F1 team McLaren are a ‘long way ahead’ of after Baku

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McLaren started the year on the back foot and pretty much the fourth fastest team on the grid – but that appears to have faded in the minds of many fans.

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have helped to steer the ship in a better development direction and they now possess the fastest car in the sport.

They’re going to need to extract every bit of pace out of it that they can if they want to chase down Red Bull in the drivers’ championship and claim a historic double.

The last time they won both titles was back in 1998 with Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard behind the wheel – that’s more than a quarter of a century ago!

McLaren are ‘a long way ahead’ of Mercedes according to Lando Norris

With seven races to go, McLaren look nailed on to take the constructors’ crown from Red Bull, but the drivers’ is a different tale.

Max Verstappen has a 59-point advantage over Norris, which means he needs to gain an average of 8.4 points per race to catch the Dutchman by the conclusion of the season in Abu Dhabi.

Speaking to the F1 website after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Norris discussed how incredible his team’s work has been in 2024.

READ MORE: Karun Chandhok loved Ferrari radio message to Charles Leclerc he heard during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix

“If you think back to the first race of the year, we were behind Mercedes and I know that they complained a lot and they’ve improved,” he said.

“But we were racing Mercedes at the first race and in fact probably a little bit slower [than them]. Now we’re still a long way ahead of them.

“They’ve done a good job, we’ve done an amazing job. To catch Red Bull, to be outscoring them, to be out-pacing them, and to be the top team in Formula 1 is something we should all be very proud of.”

What Lando Norris has to do to ensure a maiden championship win

It’s fairly obvious that Norris cannot afford a retirement at this stage in the season, with the fight at the top intensifying.

In fact, Charles Leclerc might even end up ahead of him and in second place if he were to drop out of any of the next few grands prix.

Wins are vital to ensure that the monstrous gap comes down at the rate that he needs it to, in order to take the title down to the wire in the Middle East.

READ MORE: Lando Norris takes sly dig at Red Bull following Oscar Piastri’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix win

Of the final seven events, Norris has to win at least four to stand a fair chance of jumping Verstappen – but that’s without considering what Red Bull may have up their sleeve.

The Milton Keynes-based outfit won’t have been resting on their laurels, and there’s no guarantee that they’ll be the third or fourth fastest car for the remainder of the season – so McLaren must take advantage while they can.