McLaren’s Lando Norris says the upgrades brought to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix this weekend shape the car into the design that should’ve existed at the season-opening round in Bahrain.
At the launch of the MCL60 car, McLaren stated that it had missed development targets and would start the 2023 campaign on the back foot.
Pointless races followed in Bahrain and Jeddah before both Lando Norris and rookie Oscar Piastri broke into the top 10 last time out at the Australian Grand Prix.
McLaren highlighted that it was targeting the fourth race of the season in Baku to introduce major upgrades that would aid its push amid a tight midfield battle.
Coming off the back of his sixth-place result in Melbourne, Norris remained coy over the potential of the upgrades – but asserts that McLaren should now be in a stronger position compared to the opening three rounds.
“I don’t want to get ahead of myself,” Norris said. “I think Australia was definitely a better weekend for us. Things definitely went our way a bit more and I think we were a bit unlucky which made things look worse than they were in the first two races.
“We do have the upgrade; I think that was made clear and obvious very early on in the season. What we have now is what we should have had at the start of the season – it’s what we should have started the year with.”
However, the 23-year-old acknowledged that McLaren’s rivals will also be delivering upgrades to improve their form and highlighted the importance of mitigating the gap created at the start of 2023.
“A lot of other teams have also have upgrades, so our job is to try and bring bigger things and try and play a little bit of catch-up,” said Norris.
“I think what we have this weekend is just the baseline we should have started the year with. And it’s about understanding what we have now. It’s a better baseline, there’s more room for opportunities and more room for improvement with what we have.
“So, it’s definitely going to make us take a small step forward, but other people also bringing upgrades it’s going to be slightly smaller. So yeah, I’m excited. The team have done a very good job to get these things through and get them ready, but it’s about maximising what we have now.”
