Lando Norris makes two notable admissions after losing latest Verstappen battle

Despite failing to convert his pole position to a win, Lando Norris is still confident that McLaren now has the fastest car in the 2024 Formula 1 field and conceded he “should have” won in Spain.

After the Spanish Grand Prix, Lando Norris admitted to post-race interviewer David Coulthard that a simple mistake at the start of the race cost him a chance to win over Red Bull’s Max Verstappen — and that he believes McLaren is fielding the quickest car in F1 right now.

Lando Norris ‘should have’ won Spanish Grand Prix

Coulthard pointed out after the race that Norris admitted via team radio that the Spanish Grand Prix was a race he could have won — but Norris quickly stepped in to set the record straight.

“Not could,” Norris said. “Should have done. I got a bad start, simple as that.”

The British driver noted that his McLaren was “incredible,” but that the race start truly left him on the back foot and that he simply wasn’t sure what he could have done better.

“I need to look back and review,” Norris said. “I don’t know what I did wrong, or if I was just slightly out. It was only a little bit to Max that I lost; it wasn’t like he was completely alongside. It’s more that George was suddenly outside and kind of had me over.”

Norris called the start “one negative” among a lot of positives, but it was unfortunately a negative “that kind of ruined everything.”

Still, he remains positive, “I know that I can just work on it for next time.”

Catch up on the Spanish Grand Prix action

👉 2024 Spanish Grand Prix (Barcelona) – race results and latest F1 standings

👉 Spanish GP: Max Verstappen withstands Lando Norris charge as Lewis Hamilton ends long podium drought

McLaren: The fastest car in Formula 1?

A large part of Norris’ frustration in his poor start seems to come down to the fact that he feels the McLaren is now the best car in the field.

“I think we were for sure the quickest,” Norris reflected after the race.

As the final stint of the Spanish Grand Prix wound down, the British racer certainly did whittle down Verstappen’s impressive lead to just two seconds — and Red Bull informed its driver that he’d need to pick up the pace to guarantee a victory with Norris pushing hard.

Norris’ second-place finish at Barcelona is his fourth of the year; McLaren has been on a tear since the Chinese Grand Prix, and Norris took his first victory at the following race in Miami.

With Austria on the horizon — a track that Norris hailed as one of his favorites — there’s certainly reason to believe that he may be able to display the McLaren MCL38’s full potential, if only he can “tidy up” those final loose ends.

Read next: Max Verstappen: ‘Crazy’ Charles Leclerc ‘only got a reprimand’ for Lando Norris clash