Lando Norris delivers verdict on latest McLaren upgrade ahead of Sao Paulo GP

Lando Norris has offered a cautiously positive assessment of McLaren's upgrade package introduced for this weekend's São Paulo Grand Prix.

McLaren is the only team to have brought updates to Interlagos, fitting a revised floor, a new beam wing, a reworked rear wing and a test-concept front wing, aimed at generating downforce more efficiently without adding excessive drag.

The timing of the package is notable given McLaren's struggles with the MCL40's narrow operating window this season, a trait traced back to a shorter wheelbase forced on the car early in its design to hit minimum weight targets.

That decision is reported to have permanently capped the floor's aerodynamic ceiling for 2026.

Norris, closing in on his time as F1 champion this year, has stressed that the upgrades have not been introduced purely to tame a car's behaviour.

Asked whether he could feel a step in improvement following Friday practice in which he finished second quickest behind the driver who will replace him as champion, Kimi Antonelli, speaking to media, including RacingNews365, Norris said: "It's tricky to say. You're always kind of pushing things to the limit.

"As soon as you feel something maybe a little bit more comfortable, you automatically push it until you find the limit again.

"Ultimately, the upgrades are there to bring lap time and performance. They're not set out to improve handling.

"A perfect upgrade brings lap time, and at the same time brings a handling upgrade, especially with how tricky the car's been.

"I would say maybe there's a small change in the right direction that it seems just a little bit more straightforward to drive.

"But I don't think we can ever judge things over just one track, but so far, things have seemed a little bit more straightforward, which is a good thing."

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Norris - 'A pleasant surprise'

Asked whether Friday practice in São Paulo had been encouraging, Norris, who was quickest in FP1 by 0.082s ahead of Antonelli, but a quarter of a second adrift in FP2, pointed to a mixed but ultimately promising picture across the two sessions.

"I would say so. Certainly, FP1 was a little bit of a surprise, a pleasant surprise," he said.

"FP2, we seemed to struggle a little bit more compared to the Mercedes, [they were] two-tenths up on every lap, basically. But relative to some of the others, we seemed pretty good.

"The upgrades, even though I had half and then half, and we'll kind of put everything together for tomorrow, seem to have given what we hoped for, I would say.

"So I think it's been a good day in terms of getting through the run plan, and also a good day for relative performance."