‘We seemed to gain performance’ – Lando Norris offers update on McLaren’s upgrades ahead of 2026 Formula 1 Sao Paulo Grand Prix

Lando Norris believes that McLaren “seemed to gain performance” during Friday practice ahead of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, with the team having brought several upgrades this weekend.

Having dropped away from the lead fight in previous races, McLaren brought modifications to Brazil in an attempt to find performance, as well as make the car easier to drive for Norris and team mate, Oscar Piastri.

Norris topped the first, one-hour session at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace, less than one-tenth faster than new World Champion Kimi Antonelli, before dropping to second behind the Mercedes driver in Free Practice 2 by two tenths.

“I think FP1 we seemed quite easily on the pace, FP2 maybe struggled a little bit more to match the Mercedes but I think it’s been a pretty good start to the weekend,” said Norris when asked about the upgrades.

“We’ve continued the trend that we had in Mexico. I think all in all, a positive day. Today was also a day where we’re kind of working through the upgrades and seeing if they’re working as they should and they are, so I think we seemed to gain performance.

“Nothing has changed too much from a driving point of view, it’s still tricky, but it’s maybe brought a little bit of lap time, which is what we want.”

The handling of McLaren’s MCL40 has been questioned by Norris several times this season, with last year’s World Champion stating that although the car has performance, it’s incredibly difficult to extract at the limit.

While the new upgrades have brought further performance, Norris admits that they might have also changed the handling of the car.

“You can have two types of upgrades,” he explained. “Upgrades that change kind of a balance and handling, and upgrades that are just there to bring performance, to bring lap time, to make things perform quicker.

“You hope they also improve how the car has been handling, and as we know it’s been a tricky car, so today seemed a little bit more straightforward.

“So even though the upgrades are not performed to change the handling characteristics, they aim to just bring load and grip.

“From that sometimes you get a bit of a difference in feeling and I think today was a slightly more positive feeling, so that’s certainly a good start to the weekend.”