{"id":18748,"date":"2024-02-28T16:30:33","date_gmt":"2024-02-28T21:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=18748"},"modified":"2024-02-28T16:36:27","modified_gmt":"2024-02-28T21:36:27","slug":"f1-news-lando-norris-reveals-red-bulls-closest-rival-in-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/02\/28\/f1-news-lando-norris-reveals-red-bulls-closest-rival-in-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 News: Lando Norris predicts Red Bull&#8217;s closest rival in 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Lando Norris does not expect McLaren to fight Red Bull in Bahrain, although he predicts another team could take F1 news headlines.<\/h3>\n<p>McLaren performed reasonably well in pre-season testing, although they probably lacked the raw performance they might have wanted.<\/p>\n<p>The British outfit will undoubtedly be at the sharp end in 2024, cementing their status as a top team after a resurgent last twelve months.<\/p>\n<p>However, some of their immediate rivals have likely made greater progress.<\/p>\n<p>The clearest example is Ferrari, whose SF-24 machine proved very impressive in Bahrain Testing.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike last year, the Italian team seems to have produced a car that can look after its tyres.<\/p>\n<p>On the final day of last week&#8217;s running, Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri completed race simulations at the same time.<\/p>\n<p>Broadly speaking, the Australian was slower than the Ferrari driver. Moreover, tyre degradation was not a significant limitation for the 5-time race winner.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"PdRsmwDjTLpF35FgoAXdjw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2026343666\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'PdRsmwDjTLpF35FgoAXdjw',sig:'cICBycwWhyCtZYoZj24kZQrn2sk4s8MyYVahhqTIURQ=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2026343666',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>With this in mind, Lando Norris believes Ferrari is currently Red Bull&#8217;s closest challenger:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>&#8220;I think it\u2019s clear [which teams are] the top two.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Then there\u2019s a bit of a bunch behind, which is Mercedes, Aston and us.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;But in terms of how the pre-season test went, it was a lot better than last year.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;And we\u2019re in a much better position than last year, so that\u2019s the most important thing.&#8221;<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3><strong>MCL38 is a solid foundation<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>It is easy to forget the position McLaren found themselves at this stage last year.<\/p>\n<p>The Woking-based team were firmly in the midfield, some way adrift from regular podium contention.<\/p>\n<p>Thankfully for the team, a brilliant sequence of mid-season updates reverted their fortunes.<\/p>\n<p>However, as <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/02\/28\/fernando-alonso-i-could-still-race-at-49-or-maybe-even-50\/\" target=\"_self\">Aston Martin<\/a> has learned the hard way, getting to the front is one thing. Staying there is another.<\/p>\n<p>To be clear, McLaren is still in a strong position.<\/p>\n<p>Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri should be quite frequently towards the upper position in 2024. Still, given their performance last season, race victories must be the next objective.<\/p>\n<p>In this regard, the team&#8217;s winter development might not be enough to put the MCL38 on the top step of the podium.<\/p>\n<p>Andrea Stella&#8217;s personnel will hope to harness the upward trajectory that saw them ascend so rapidly in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>For now, though, Ferrari is widely regarded as the biggest threat to Max Verstappen and Red Bull.<\/p>\n<p>The battle for third, as it stands, could be between the three Mercedes-powered teams: McLaren, Aston Martin and the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/02\/28\/lewis-hamilton-reveals-mentality-ahead-of-ferrari-2025-move\/\" target=\"_self\">Silver Arrows<\/a> themselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lando Norris does not expect McLaren to fight Red Bull in Bahrain, although he predicts another team could take F1 news headlines. McLaren performed reasonably well in pre-season testing, although they probably lacked the raw performance they might have wanted. The British outfit will undoubtedly be at the sharp end in 2024, cementing their status [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":17856,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2220,68,23,444,66],"class_list":["post-18748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-2024-formula-1-season","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-lando-norris","tag-mclaren"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}