Lando Norris is confident that McLaren can edge closer to battling with Ferrari and Red Bull as they continue to make improvements across the season. After a difficult start to the campaign in Bahrain, the Woking-based squad have taken steps forward in recent races, and this culminated in Norris claiming the outfit's first podium of 2022 with a P3 result at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. When asked by RacingNews365.com how the team have made this progression, and whether he and teammate Daniel Ricciardo have advised them on where they wanted to see improvements, Norris explained: "I think if I wanted to speak in simple terms, we need the improvements everywhere. "High speed, medium speed, slow speeds, maybe more bias towards the slower to medium speed. But, as a package, everything needs to be just that next level."
Norris: Not easy to focus on areas for improvement
Norris admits that it is not always straightforward to select certain areas to improve on. "I think, as we've said in the past, the balance has been good, and we're happy with the balance," the Briton explained. "It's just, you do a good lap, you do something that feels good, and you're just slow because you go around every corner slower than than others. So it's not easy, [because] you want to focus on everything." Whilst there has already been a clear progression with the McLaren car, Norris says that the 23-race calendar means certain aspects of development have to be prioritised over others. "Over this long season, you've got to kind of focus on certain things first," he added. "We've not brought anything big. I know there's been big steps, but it's not like we've brought a new floor or new things or whatever. "So [it has just been] smaller things, but the smaller things seem to be having an effect when you put them all together on a weekend like this."
Has Norris and Ricciardo's feedback been the same?
In terms of the input from himself and Ricciardo in the process of improving the MCL36, Norris feels that their comments have been quite similar, despite having a difference in driving styles. "A lot of Daniel's and my comments are in line," Norris commented. "We have slighty different driving styles, so they're not always identical, but in how we want to improve the car and get quicker, they're pretty much exactly the same. "So that's a good thing. The guys and girls are focusing hard to come up with these new paths." Sitting alongside Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez in the post-race press conference at Imola, Norris added: "I'm confident [that] over the length of the season we can continue to bring more, and try and get closer to these guys."
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