Lando Norris delivers Aston Martin dig as McLaren sail past in Constructors’ standings

Lando Norris declared Aston Martin have “made the car slower and slower” with every upgrade, the Briton bullish after McLaren overhauled the Silverstone team in the standings at the United States Grand Prix.

Aston Martin and McLaren have had contrasting fortunes this campaign with Aston Martin emerging as Red Bull’s closest challengers early in the season, while McLaren have since taken up the tag of best of the rest on the track.

And it’s all been down to development.

Lando Norris’ P2 at COTA put McLaren ahead of Aston in the standings

While McLaren’s Austria and Singapore upgrades did what the box said, the team making notable performance gains, Aston Martin seem to have lost their way with their updates.

It’s meant they’ve scored just one podium in the last 10 races to McLaren’s eight with Norris’ runner-up result at the United States Grand Prix extending his streak to four.

On a day when Lance Stroll was Aston Martin’s only points-scorer in seventh place, Norris’ P2 put McLaren six points ahead of the Silverstone team in the fight to finish fourth inthe standings.

Norris could resist a little dig at Aston Martin for their spotty upgrades.

“I feel like we’re in a good rhythm,” said Norris. “It’s been clear that Aston are just, I don’t know, they seem to have made the car slower and slower with every upgrade that they brought.

“I mean, they were racing Red Bull at the beginning of the year and I don’t know where they finished today but they were out in Q1 and they’ve been struggling.

“So I don’t know what their issues are but they were very strong. They had a lot of points in the first half of the season. Second half they’ve been struggling.

“So for us, it’s vice versa.

“I think the main thing is when you look at where we were, how bad Bahrain was for us, how many seconds off pole we were, my six pitstops in the first race of the season, I lost my PU straightaway.

“So there were things which were set off, put us on the back foot from the beginning, and when you look at where we are now to be fighting against a Red Bull, who was an unrealistic target for almost anyone, and fighting against a Mercedes.

“As much as we are disappointed that we can’t go for a race [win] when you put it in perspective of where we were and how much we’ve improved I think it’s still an amazing day for us.”

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Zak Brown ‘very proud’ of McLaren’s recovery

McLaren CEO Zak Brown applauded the team’s recovery having feared early in the season that “seventh or eighth place” would be the best they could achieve.

After Canada, the last race before their massive Austrian Grand Prix upgrade, they were on 17 points, 137 behind Aston Martin.

在10个种族sinc拿下225分e to Aston Martin’s 82 they are now six ahead with the pre-season target of P4 having been reached.

“That’s very important, it was the goal before the season,” Brown said as per Sky Deutschland.

“If you had asked me about fourth place after the first races, I would have said that I was thinking about seventh or eighth place.

“I am very proud of the team. We just have to keep it up.”

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