Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri send McLaren fans wild with huge prediction

24 July 2023 , 17:51

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Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are finally allowing themselves to get excited about McLaren's performance (Image: McLaren Racing)

McLaren feel they can be confident "at most places we go now" after surprising themselves with their pace at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Woking-based team began the year miles off the pace and chief executive Zak Brown admitted development targets had been missed. It meant more frustration for Lando Norris, while rookie team-mate Oscar Piastri was unable to show his skills.

In Austria at the start of this month, though, there were signs of life. Norris received the first part of a significant car upgrade which helped propel him up the order to finish in fourth place.

Both he and Piastri had the updated car a week later at Silverstone and they finished second and fourth. Amid all the hype, though, the Brit was still insisting that those two tracks suited their car and that they needed more evidence before claiming this was a permanent situation.

The Hungaroring was the big test, given it has a number of slow-speed corners which is where the McLaren cars are at their weakest. But still they shone, Norris second again behind only Max Verstappen while Piastri was fifth, struggling a little more due to some minor car damage.

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"Not the smoothest of races for myself. I lacked a little bit of pace, broke another floor so sorry team," said the Aussie in a video put out on social media by the team. "That explains a little bit of it but there's still some work to do for myself."

But, after that, he finally said the words McLaren fans have been waiting to hear. Piastri added: "Two cars in the top five in a hot race like that, I think that was one of our nightmares having conditions like that at the start of the year, so I think we're in a pretty good spot. We can be confident in most places we go now. Thanks for the support and hopefully this is our normal weekend report now."

And Norris also seemed much more willing to hype up his team's car performance after a strong showing on that Budapest track. He said: "We've come to the end of another successful race weekend. It was a tricky one with the hot conditions today, it made our lives very, very tough and it was tricky to understand the tyres – when to push and when not to push.

"But, on the whole, it was successful because of a good load of points compared to those who were our competitors, but who now aren't our competitors. We've got new competitors which is a good sign. A strong qualifying yesterday made everything feel very good. It was a tricky but a decent race from both of us today.

"So, another trophy, the fans were great. I know a lot of you are supporting Max but I'm still claiming a lot of you when I'm on the podium, and even when I'm not on the podium. So I just want to say a big thank you for all your support and we'll see you at the papaya home race in Spa."

In response to the video, fans were over the moon about what they had seen. One wrote: "Great that the updates worked on two different tracks. Looking forward to the rest of the races." Another added: "You guys are doing so well. Be super proud and can't wait for next weekend!"

And a third opined: "We know what Lando can do but I'm super excited to see what the future holds for Oscar. He's only going to get better and faster. If the team can keep developing the car and keep up the hard work then I hope we'll be seeing double podiums more often than not."

Daniel Moxon