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Lando Norris backs Williams F1 as midfield contenders in 2020

Published 04/03/2020, 7:48 AM EDT

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McLaren driver Lando Norris believes Williams needs to be taken seriously by other F1 teams in 2020. The Briton had words of praise for the Grove outfit and claimed the team was a lot closer to the midfield. 2019 was a forgettable year for Williams and the team finished last in the Constructors’ Standings.

Lando sees Williams challenging the midfield in 2020

Nothing went right for Williams last year. The team were on the back-foot right from the get-go. When Williams couldn’t even participate in the first few days of testing, the team’s troubles were apparent. Sadly, as the season progressed Williams failed to keep up with the other teams.

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The FW42 was inferior to the other cars in almost every aspect. Furthermore, the 2019 car was a second off the pace even when compared to the midfield. However, Williams may have ironed out a few issues in the FW43.

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For starters, the team competed in all 6 days of preseason testing. Apart from a few minor hiccups, the FW43 looked significantly better than its predecessor. There’s no way or verifying this in real-world conditions as we’ve had no races so far.

Norris believes there’s more than what meets the eye. The Briton backed Williams to bounce back this season and challenge the midfield.

Speaking to Autosport, Norris said:

I think Williams are much closer. They’re within the battle, basically, so we need to think about them,

“It’s not like we don’t have to include them on our strategy, or choose when to pit around them.”

“Now we have to include them, and we’re going to be racing them. It’s not going to be easy to pass them.

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Racing Point – the team to beat

The British driver also sees Racing Point as a big threat and believes the team is on track to lead the midfield fight.

They just have a car which performs well everywhere. I think they’re just going to start all the weekends off very well

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“They’re either going to be a long way ahead, or they’re within the battle, or maybe just in front. I’m not too sure.

Unfortunately, Coronavirus may have robbed fans of an exciting tussle within the midfield. We’ll just have to wait a little longer to see who’s really on top.

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Written by:

Abhishek Bharadwaj

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Abhishek Bharadwaj is an F1 author and content strategist at EssentiallySports. Having joined ES in January 2020, he has over 700 articles to his name. While he was first introduced to the world of F1 in 2006, he started religiously following the sport in 2012 and has had an undying passion for it ever since.
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