News Summary
- Lando Norris says McLaren’s São Paulo upgrades are designed to add performance and could leave the car harder to drive.
- McLaren is bringing changes to the front wing, rear wing and floor, with Leonardo Fornaroli taking Oscar Piastri’s car in FP1.
- McLaren arrives at Interlagos fourth in the constructors’ standings, 17 points behind Red Bull.
Lando Norris has questioned whether McLaren’s latest upgrade package will address the handling problems he has felt throughout the season. McLaren is bringing revised front and rear wings and floor components to the São Paulo Grand Prix. Norris sees scope for more performance, but he is less certain about how the car will feel when he takes it out at Interlagos.
“I don’t think it will make it any easier [to drive]. Maybe there’s a chance it makes it harder,” Norris said in Mexico, in remarks reported by Sky Sports ahead of the São Paulo weekend.
His description of the MCL40’s handling was blunt: “The car has been horrible, difficult to drive the whole season.”
What McLaren wants to learn at Interlagos
The São Paulo upgrade package gives McLaren changes at both ends of the car and beneath it. Norris said his job was to describe what he was feeling and where the car was difficult. The engineers and aerodynamicists then had to turn that feedback into lap time. He acknowledged that previous updates had improved the car, while arguing that Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari had made bigger gains over the past couple of months.
McLaren will begin that work with Leonardo Fornaroli in one car. The reserve driver will take Oscar Piastri’s place in FP1, with his programme linked to evaluating the new parts. Norris will drive the other MCL40 from the opening session, while Piastri is due back in FP2. The conventional three-practice format at Interlagos gives the team a further session on Saturday before qualifying.
McLaren has 17 points to make up on Red Bull
Norris won in Budapest and Zandvoort, either side of the summer break, but has not won since the Dutch Grand Prix. He argued that McLaren had recovered from a difficult start and had shown enough pace to win races before its rivals pulled away again. He also pointed to the resources the team had committed to winning both titles in 2025 ahead of the 2026 regulation change, a trade-off he said he was happy to have made.
With the drivers’ title already decided in Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s favour, McLaren’s immediate target is third in the Constructors’ Championship. The post-Mexico standings put Red Bull on 382 points and McLaren on 365. Friday’s sessions will give Norris his first opportunity to see whether the package brings the speed McLaren needs and how much of that performance he can use consistently.
GRANDE PRÊMIO is covering every session of the São Paulo Grand Prix live from Interlagos. Follow our on-site coverage in Formula 1.
