Lando Norris: We didn’t expect a podium at Imola

At the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in Imola, Lando Norris gave McLaren its first podium of the season and finished third. After the race, at the FIA ​​press conference, the British driver commented on the weekend’s results and assessed the competitiveness of the MCL36 car.

Ask Lando, you rode alone for most of the race but ended up winning the podium. How do you rate your race?
Lando Norris: Honestly, I’m surprised I made it to the podium, given our form three to four weeks ago. After the race in Bahrain I thought we would never finish on the podium this season, so this result is a bit shocking.

Perhaps the result is not surprising given the progress of the past month, but we certainly did not expect a podium at Imola, given the speed of Red Bull and Ferrari. It’s hard for me to imagine myself in the top three because we would consider even fifth place to be a great achievement.

There were some interesting moments during the race. I had a great start and was ahead of both Ferrari drivers, avoiding all the chaos that was happening behind me. Yes, I did the race alone, but that didn’t make it any less beautiful. I was able to make a hole out of George Russell and then check the condition of the tires.

To be honest, everything worked for us all weekend, and not just in the race. Third place in qualifying was also a great result for us. All in all a great weekend. It’s nice to see progress thanks to new products, and the podium was a reward for everyone.

Q: In Imola, your car was the third fastest?
Lando NorrisA: I don’t know, it’s hard to say. The balance of power changes every weekend. Mercedes was actually not that bad this weekend. I think we were just a little faster than them. As for Alfa Romeo, they were faster than us. Valtteri Bottas had a bad start but was faster in the sprint and race but simply couldn’t overtake George Russell.

None of this matters anymore as we were able to get ahead of two riders who were a second faster than us in the lap – one of them ended up in the wall and the second in the gravel. It doesn’t matter if our car was third, fourth or fifth in terms of speed. It’s important that we had a successful race, the car was fast and I was confident.

Q: Did you have to be nervous during the race?
Lando Norris: Almost every round! The start is always exciting, but I started well, passed Charles Leclerc on the curb and ended up behind Sergio Perez. Riding on Medium tires I realized that if I went a little wider than the dry trail or blocked the wheels, I would immediately find myself in gravel.

It is difficult to describe what it means to drive a car under such conditions. On the one hand you have to attack, on the other you have to take care of the tires and ideally follow the trajectory – if you take a slightly wider bend and drive up the curb you can fly into the wall or turn around – you have seen how it coming. With every lap you feel stressed so the race seemed very long but the reward at the finish was more desirable.

Q: Can you tell us what areas the team has made progress in?
Lando Norris: Simply put, we needed progress in all areas – in fast corners, in medium speed and slow corners. The car as a whole had to go to the next level, you know?

We have said in the past that we are happy with the balance. I drove a circle and felt the balance was right, the circle was good, but it turned out that the circle was actually slow because our car was inferior to rivals in speed in all corners. Solving the problem was not easy – you want to pay attention to every area, but you have to understand that the season is long and some things need priority.

We didn’t bring anything important to Imola. I know the team has made significant progress, but we didn’t bring any new bottom or any other new element. Just small improvements that add up to a big effect when we managed to put all the pieces together, like this weekend.

Daniel and I have a lot of the same feedback about the car. We have slightly different steering styles, but our desires to make the car faster are the same, and that’s good. The boys and girls on the base make every effort to prepare new items. I am sure that we will continue to improve during the season and close the gap with the leaders.