Texas [US], October 20 : Lando Norris is less optimistic about McLaren's chances in Austin than he was in Qatar, citing the slower nature of the Circuit of The Americas track as one reason why they could struggle on the weekend he makes his 100th F1 start.
The 2023 United States Grand Prix will take place at the Circuit of The Americas in Austin on Sunday.
Norris has been in good form since McLaren introduced their first big upgrade package of the year in Austria, scoring five podiums in the past nine races, including the last three events in Singapore, Japan, and Qatar.
However, speaking at a press conference ahead of this weekend's action in Texas, Norris indicated that he expected his MCL60 to struggle with the slower speed track, whereas their competitors may find it to their advantage.
"Not so confident. Just a lot more slow-speed corners, which is not our strength. I think it's tough when you look at Singapore. Obviously, we were not bad in Singapore, not as strong as Ferrari, but still not a bad race. But we know on these types of circuits, Mercedes are going to be very strong, Ferrari are going to be very strong, Aston here in the past have been very strong," Norris was quoted as saying by Formula 1.
"It's just not a track... like we knew when we went to Qatar it was going to be a track that really suited us, a lot of medium-high speed, which is where we are very strong and almost on par with Red Bull," he added.
"[There is] less of that here and a lot more slower speed. I'm definitely not as confident but nevertheless, I'm not saying it's going to be a bad weekend. I think we can still fight; it's just going to be a much bigger fight I think," Norris said.
Norris will compete in his 100th Formula One race this weekend, having made his debut with McLaren at the 2019 Australian Grand Prix. When asked how proud he was to have reached this milestone, Norris said, "Pretty proud. I don't think many people in the world get to achieve such a thing. That and also people who do enter Formula 1, not many people get to stay for the full 100."
Norris was also asked to pick his best race from the 99 he had started so far, he replied, "I don't know what would be my best race. There are the obvious ones, the podiums ones, first pole position, first podium in Formula 1, those are the ones you always remember."
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