2020 was a great year on the journey to potentially return to the front of the field for McLaren. The Woking-based team secured 3rd in the Constructors' Championship; that was the first time they had finished in the top 3 since 2012.  

After a disastrous time with Honda where they finished 9th in the standings in 2015 and 2017, it has been an impressive recovery by the former giants of the sport.  

Last year also saw them score two podiums for the first time since 2014; Lando Norris in Austria and Carlos Sainz at Monza.  

McLaren has changed Power Unit suppliers over the winter (Renault to Mercedes) and with Ferrari hoping to make a big step on the engine side, it's a possibility that the Italian giants could leapfrog their former bitter rivals.  

Asked if closing the gap to Mercedes and Red Bull or keeping Ferrari behind was more difficult, Norris said: "For sure, to close the gap to the guys ahead.

"That’s always the more difficult part of it. It’s not like Ferrari are a miles better team than us." Norris is quoted by GPFans. "We have confidence in ourselves. We’re still an extremely good team. 

“We’ve been on the fightback for the past few years, making good improvements and I think we’ve shown that lately, last year more than ever. 

“I don’t think we can underestimate what we have been able to do in the past and what we can hopefully do in the future and that doesn’t mean we have to be always looking over our backs at what people can do. 

“I think we can still just look forward to knowing we’re an extremely good team with extremely clever and talented people here at McLaren and we can just fight our own way back to the front." 

Nonetheless, the young Brit conceded that Mercedes and Red Bull are out of reach at the moment. He also accepted that Ferrari and other teams like Aston Martin and Alpine could be able to beat them at a number of events this year.  

“Racing Mercedes and racing Red Bull, that’s not where we are at the moment," he added. 

"It’s what we’re working towards and what we have been closing in on over the past few years. 

“There’s going to be races where they [Ferrari] are quicker than us and hopefully more races where they are slower than us but it’s not just them, it’s every competitor on the grid which is able to beat us and be competitive against us so we’ll see.”