“Ferrari have the best car, their cornering speeds are unbelievable” – Norris

Mercedes may have finished first and second in qualifying and the grand prix in Melbourne but Lando Norris believes Ferrari have a stronger chassis.

George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli led the field home in the Australian Grand Prix. Charles Leclerc finished third in his Ferrari, 15 seconds off Russell, with team mate Lewis Hamilton less than a second behind.

However Ferrari led the early stages of the race after both drivers made strong starts. They lost time by failing to take advantage of an opportunity to pit under the first Virtual Safety Car period.

Norris finished fifth, 51 seconds behind Russell, after making one pit stop more than those ahead of him. He doubts McLaren will make significant inroads on the leaders before next weekend’s race in China.

“This is nothing that’s going to happen overnight, or in one week or two weeks’ time,” he told Sky. “The gap was 50 – almost a second a lap off. So not quite [as much as] that, but you would say at least five tenths, six tenths a lap off.

“Some of that is still understanding the [power unit], some of it’s just a better car. I think Ferrari, from what we see quite clearly, they have the best car. The cornering speeds are unbelievable.

“So for us to match that is zero chance at the minute, and we have to work very hard to understand things and learn as much as we can from this part of the season. Because this part of the season now sets up the rest of it, basically. So the more we can learn, the more we can understand, the better we’ll be at the end of the season.”

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The reigning world champion resisted a late attack from Max Verstappen, who started 20th after spinning out in qualifying. Norris suspects Red Bull’s car is also quicker than McLaren’s.

“It was really quite clear the Red Bull was a lot quicker just because Max came from last and almost beat us,” he said. “So not the best race in terms of pace.

“We struggled with some things on the car at the beginning. We made some tweaks and that certainly improved things. We’re nowhere near where we need to be clearly, but probably more so from a car perspective.

“I think today showed a lot more from a car that we’re a very, very long way off and we have a lot of work to do.”

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