“We didn’t come into the season as strong as we needed to,” Lando Norris reflects on the first half of 2022

“We didn’t come into the season as strong as we needed to,” Lando Norris reflects on the first half of 2022

Lando Norris

McLaren are probably not where they would want to be in the standings: They are leagues behind Mercedes and are locked into a battle for fourth place with Alpine, one in which they’re currently behind. In that sense, they have downgraded from 2021, as they spent the majority of last season vying for third place with Ferrari.

McLaren are one of the best-known and most-loved names in Formula 1, but the last decade or so has not been particularly amazing for them. The highlight was undeniably Daniel Ricciardo’s win and a 1-2 finish in the Italian Grand Prix last year. They have been doing much worse than Ferrari over the last decade or so, and the two premier names in Formula 1 have been forced to take a side seat in the face of the Red Bull and Mercedes domination.

This year, it is unlikely that they will be competing for victories any time soon, and are obviously, resigned to their fate. But at teams like McLaren, the expectations are always higher, and they will soon be looking to get back there with the top teams. However, for this season, like last, there has been one moment that stands above all others: Lando Norris’ podium in Imola.

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Lando Norris: ‘The podium in Imola just blows my mind’

Lando Norris celebrating his podium finish in Imola earlier this year

Lando Norris has been impressive this year: He is comprehensively beating his teammate, Daniel Ricciardo, for the second year in a row, and he is also comfortably the ‘best of the rest’ driver, coming in behind Lewis Hamilton and 7th in the championship standings. Even if the year itself may not be to McLaren’s standards, no one can fault Norris for it.

In an interview published on the official Formula 1 website, “For myself and my driving and so on, I’m happy. Some good highlights, I don’t know how I got a podium in Imola, it just blows my mind. With the car that we have that’s quite some achievement so still makes me smile now, but then there are still a lot of positives.”

But on the team side, he thinks: “It’s just now we have a lot of work to do. The gap to the guys ahead is still massive and I guess yes, it’s close on Saturday, but everyone is closer on Saturday, even last place is a lot closer. It’s just the spread on Sunday is bigger than what it has been in past, and we’ve got to work on that.”

He added: “I’ll enjoy my break first and then we will work on it and see what we can do for next time. I think reasonable start to the season, so I’m happy with it.”

He thinks that McLaren just did not start the season as well as they should have: “I think the main thing is that of course we just didn’t come into the season as strong as we needed to. How we’ve done since then since the first race I think has been very good and strong.” and thinks that still fighting against Alpine for fourth, when the French team has been a lot more competitive from day one is a good feat.

He concluded by saying that despite a poor start the team have been consistent in all other departments, but that they still need to close the gap from the top teams.

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