McLaren has to come "out of the box strong" - Lando Norris

McLaren

McLaren has to come "out of the box strong" - Norris

McLaren finished third in last year's constructors' championship

Sam Hall

Thursday 11 March 2021 14:44

Lando Norris believes McLaren has to 'come out of the box strong' this season to ensure last year's form was not a flash in the pan.

Following a season-long battle with Racing Point and Renault, McLaren secured its best finish in the constructors' championship since 2012 by claiming third.

Over the winter McLaren has made changes on both the technical and driving fronts by switching to Mercedes power units from Renault and bringing in Daniel Ricciardo for Carlos Sainz following the Spaniard's switch to Ferrari.

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Ahead of the start of pre-season testing in Bahrain on Friday, assessing his goals for the year, Norris said: "Starting on the right foot, starting how we ended last year is probably the main target and just coming out of the box strong in 2021."

Asked for specific aims, Norris answered: "I’m going to wait until the pre-season test and race one to set clear targets. “I think the main one is to start how I ended the year because I felt I was on a much better foot, I was a lot more confident.

"I was performing well in terms of my driving and how I was working with my engineers, not relying on the other side and just making our own way, working for ourselves.

"That worked very well at the end of last year."

With Sainz alongside him, Norris enjoyed relative stability at McLaren in his first two years in F1, but this season he will be partnered by Ricciardo following the Australian's move from Renault.

Despite the two previously sharing jokes in press conferences and playing pranks on each other in the paddock, Norris claims he has rarely had contact with his new team-mate outside of these encounters.

“I guess it’s similar to with Carlos," added Norris. "I probably knew Daniel a little bit more than when I met Carlos entering Formula 1. I never spoke with Carlos once before we met at the MTC.

“With Daniel, I know him slightly more already so it’s slightly different. Things were a little bit further along.

"But days like when we’re in the factory together, doing interviews together, those are the days where you get to learn and get to know a bit more about the guy you are working with.

“We never really spoke that much last year or over the past two years or even during this winter.

"We’ve both been doing our own thing but the last few weeks, getting back to work and working together, it’s probably the most I have spoken to him.”