Lando Norris insists McLaren’s car is not quick enough in the slow-speed corners to challenge Mercedes for the F1 world championship this season. The reigning world champion secured his second consecutive win, after a second consecutive pole position, with an accomplished and composed drive at the Dutch Grand Prix on Sunday. Norris now trails championship leader Kimi Antonelli by 83 points with 11 rounds remaining – but was keen to play down his hopes of winning a second straight title this year. "I'm confident because we clearly have a strong car," Norris said. "We have a strong car in certain areas. It's not like last year where we were pretty good everywhere."We're very, very strong in high speed, and that's the place we've improved the car the most, is high-speed performance. No one matches us in high speed, and that's a good thing."My pace advantage to Mercedes in turn seven/eight was crazy, but their advantage that they have to us in slow speed is also crazy. And therefore, I don't have the confidence to say, 'Yeah, I can easily fight for a championship for the rest of the season.'"I know I've just won two races in a row and had two poles in a row, but at the minute I don't have the car I need to fight for a championship. And I know that's quite a big comment."For comparison, Max Verstappen trailed then-championship leader Oscar Piastri by 104 points after Zandvoort last year and ended up finishing just two points behind champion Norris. Crucially, after a difficult start to the season for McLaren – which included a double DNS in China – Norris seems to have found his form over the past two races, following his win in Hungary prior to the summer break. Lando Norris secured his second win of the season in Zandvoort (Getty)"I was driving at a high level the second half of last year," he said. "It's tough to say, but I do think it's a trickier car to drive this year in some ways. And I think you can see that because the gaps between team-mates are often bigger this year, I would say, than it was last year."I do believe I'm able to understand situations better, to understand the car in a better way. It's still just horrible to drive, but I'm doing a better job at just understanding this, relaying this to my team, figuring stuff out."So, it's not just I'm driving better on track. I'm certainly eliminating my weaknesses on track, and I don't have so many, but it's also how I work off the track. And for me, yesterday to today is a perfect example of the work we put in overnight transformed our race and gave me the opportunity to win."The next race is the Italian Grand Prix in Monza on 6 September.