Lando Norris reveals McLaren 'back foot' demand from F1 rival Mercedes

Lando Norris has revealed that McLaren has called on power unit supplier Mercedes to provide more to allow the team to be better prepared going into this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix.

Norris claims McLaren went into last weekend's season-opening race in Australia "on the back foot", in comparison to Mercedes, which began F1's new power unit era with a one-two at Melbourne's Albert Park, spearheaded by George Russell.

As for McLaren, and fellow customers Williams and Alpine, the performance of all three teams was lacking, sparking comments from team principals Andreas Stella and James Vowles, in particular, regarding the disparity with Mercedes.

Norris maintains there is a close working relationship with Mercedes, notably as the German manufacturing giant has powered the Woking-based team to constructors' championship glory the past two years, and the Briton to the drivers' title last season.

For this season, however, Norris feels McLaren was not as prepared as it could have been.

Asked whether McLaren would be squeezing more from Mercedes this weekend, speaking to the media at the Shanghai International Circuit, including RacingNews365, Norris replied: "We've worked very closely, and they've helped us achieve the last couple of championships together. It's certainly not like that's not the case already.

"It's just early on in the season, there are a lot of things to try and understand, and it's just that it's not told, let's say. Certain things don't need to be told because you always try to create your own advantages.

"But at the same time, there are certain things that we are having to figure out for ourselves. I don't know what the rules are and what has to be said or not. That's down to Andrea and the rest of the team.

"But we've always worked closely. We'll continue to do it. As much as he said some of these things, there were still a lot of things that we didn't explore, and maximise ourselves. If we just do a better job ourselves, maximise and figure out more earlier, we would just do better anyway."

Pertinently, Norris added: "The fact that we didn't have the newer power unit at an earlier point meant that we were always going to be on the back foot compared to a team that's performing extremely well, and a lot more prepared than we're able to be. 

"I guess we just want to be able to be more prepared, and that's the main thing we've asked for."

McLaren playing catch-up

Norris insisted that McLaren does at least obtain all it can from Mercedes. It is simply a case that on this occasion, going into this season, the situation has altered slightly.

"I think we get everything that we want," said Norris. "I certainly don't think there's any of that.

"We're very happy. We're just delayed on all of these processes, and therefore, we've not been able to be as prepared as we want to be. It's as simple as that.

"We were playing catch-up at round one, rather than saying, 'Yeah, we feel like we've nailed everything'.

"Why is there still a gap? It's a big gap, and we're figuring out things along the way, which is too late in the world of Formula 1.

"When you're in the world of preparation, when you don't feel prepared, and you're finding out things along the way, that's just not the position you want to be in."