The two teams have been locked in a close fight to take the moral prize of being considered the best team of the rest, behind Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes this season.
But in recent races, Alpine’s continued developments have allowed it to step up and move away from the Woking team. Enstone right now have a 20-point lead and seem to have the faster car of the two.
Despite all indications that Alpine is destined to finish fourth, Lando Norris still believes McLaren have a chance, but reckons they can’t wait long to react.
In particular, the British driver believes the high-downforce nature of Zandvoort’s layout should be better suited to the MCL36.
“Hopefully we can make up some points, especially as you put as much downforce as possible on the car here,” he said ahead of the Dutch GP.
“At Spa almost everything was based on efficiency. You had to be quick on the straights but also have a car that produces a lot of downforce without a big wing, like Red Bull .”
“That’s when you realize that they are much faster than everyone, especially Max (Verstappen). But yes, here it is a bit more like Budapest or Monaco, where everything is put into the cars.
“So hopefully we can step up again and be a little bit more competitive. I think we still have a long way to go. But we are running out of time to try and finish ahead of Alpine.”
McLaren director Andreas Seidl refuses to accept that the fight with Alpine is over.
“If you look at the last race, Alpine just did a better job, we have to give it to them,” he said.
“But at the same time, I’m sure we’re not giving up. There are still eight races to go and a lot of points to fight for. Not long ago, in Hungary, on a quite different track and in different conditions, we were competitive, we were the fourth best team.
McLaren ‘s MCL36 isn’t the most aerodynamically efficient car in a straight line, and that characteristic proved to be a clear handicap in Belgium last weekend.
However, Seidl shares Norris ‘s optimism that Zandvoort ‘s high downforce requirements could benefit them and give them a little push.
Seidl added: “I think we should be in a better position and be more competitive.”
“But at the same time, we’ve already seen several times this year, from race to race, that the pecking order changed and the performance levels changed a lot. So we’ll see. But I’m pretty optimistic that we’ll be more competitive again.” “, concluded the one from Woking.
