Lando Norris has said that McLaren‘s outstanding performance at the 2023 British Grand Prix will not be repeated around the Hungaroring.
The team enters the Hungarian GP on the back of a second and fourth place finish at Silverstone, which saw them earn their first podium of the 2023 Formula 1 season.
That said, Norris shut down talk of a second consecutive champagne party when asked if he would, and could, finish on the podium.
“I’ll just answer it all,” Norris said to the media ahead of the Hungarian GP. “‘Are you going to finish on the podium?’ No.
“‘Are you quick enough to finish on the podium?’ No, it’s great that Daniel is back. Yeah, that’s pretty much it.”
How will the McLaren do in Hungary?
The Hungaroring has some similar features to Silverstone, with medium and high speeds being rather plentiful and the track is sometimes referred to as Monaco without the walls.
McLaren have shown good pace in both the Monaco GP and British GP in 2023, leaving people excited to see how the team will do in Hungary.
Norris is rather 50/50 on the topic, feeling that the low-speed corners should hurt McLaren but that the team had pleasant surprises in previous races this season and in Budapest.
“I guess no matter what the outlook of it is, we’re not very good in the slow-speed corners,” Norris said. “I guess we’re not terrible, if you fully focus on slow-speed, we’re not so bad.
“We were not too bad in Monaco. I guess when you have to start making compromises, there are much bigger wins for us by performing well in the high-speed than focusing too much on the slow-speed.
“So I guess we’re not bad here. If you look at last year, it wasn’t actually a bad weekend for us with a car we struggled with in the beginning of the season. So I still want to be hopeful.”
