Norris is astonished that AlphaTauri aren’t closer in points to McLaren/Ferrari

While McLaren and Ferrari battle it out for third place in the Constructors’ Championship, Lando Norris is concerned about AlphaTauri’s threat.

Given their recent competitiveness, Lando Norris admits he’s surprised AlphaTauri isn’t closer to McLaren and Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship.

Pierre Gasly has put up some excellent performances, including a fourth-place finish at the Mexican Grand Prix, while Yuki Tsunoda has made improvement and gained points at the United States Grand Prix.

Despite their current position of sixth in the standings, Norris believes the Red Bull sister team has been a factor in the McLaren/Ferrari race for P3 all year.

“I think they have been [a variable in the battle] all season,” Norris told media when asked about AlphaTauri.

“There have been many races where they’ve been a long way ahead of us, and some where they’ve been a long way behind us. But the Red Bull was very competitive and then so was the AlphaTauri.

“They’ve had good weekends all year. They’ve been very competitive. I’m surprised that they’re not anywhere near as close as where they should be in terms of Constructors’ points, because they’ve had a very competitive car all season.

“So they’ve always been there or thereabouts. They’re always in consideration for qualifying and races throughout basically the whole year. We’ve never counted them out of anything.”

Ferrari vs McLaren continues

Meanwhile, the struggle for third place in the Constructors’ Championship continues between Ferrari and McLaren, with Ferrari presently leading by 13.5 points.

Norris believes the Scuderia has had the upper hand in recent races, but believes McLaren can compete in Sao Paulo as well.

“It’s going to be tight,” the Briton said. “It’s always tight. I don’t think it’s going to be convincing in any way, hopefully it isn’t anyway.

“But Ferrari have been the stronger team lately. They’ve been the guys who have been consistently ahead in qualifying [and] in the races so, looking at the stats lately, you’d put them ahead.

“But we’re working hard. We’ve done a lot of reviews from Mexico and so on.

“Looking back at two years ago here [in Brazil], we had a pretty decent car, and Carlos [Sainz] was on the podium and so on, so we’re hopeful and we can be confident we can have a good weekend.”

The weekend at the Brazilian Grand Prix was off to a start for AlphaTauri, with Gasly qualifying fifth, ahead of both Ferraris and McLarens, on Friday.

Sainz and Charles Leclerc finished sixth and seventh, respectively, with Norris in eight and Daniel Ricciardo in ninth.

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