Miami race winner Lando Norris claims McLaren is even more suited to Imola

Fresh off a race win in Miami, Lando Norris feels McLaren would be better suited for a track like Imola than the last race. The young driver has almost got a stigma attached to it where he was just unable to win a Grand Prix.

Norris continued to be one of the primary challengers of Max Verstappen's dominance since last season in McLaren but couldn't cross the final hurdle. He was unable to win a race, even though his teammate Oscar Piastri accomplished a win in a sprint last season.

Lando Norris broke the record for the most podiums secured by a driver without winning a race. In Miami, Norris righted that wrong and won his first race as McLaren brought a massive upgrade package to the car.

Coming to Imola after beating Red Bull's Max Verstappen in a straight fight, Lando Norris claimed that his car could be even better at this track than the last one. In the pre-race press conference, he said (via PlanetF1):

"I think we are just better suited to Imola, potentially the upgrade is a little bit as well. Imola has generally been one of our most successful tracks as a team and for me as a driver so I would like to say so I think we definitely took a step forward."

---

Lando Norris wary of other teams bringing upgrades

Lando Norris was, however, wary of the other teams bringing upgrades to their cars this weekend. With Imola being the first European race, this is the perfect opportunity for teams to bring an upgrade package to the car.

Teams like Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull, and Aston Martin are bringing extensive upgrade packages this weekend and Norris is wary of the impact it could have on the relative performance. He said:

“From what I know, other teams have upgrades too so I don’t think we’re getting ahead of ourselves. I’ve put good confidence forward to the team, I’ve said that we’re confident we can take steps forward, but I think I made it clear that we’re not going to be there every weekend."

He added:

“I was lucky last weekend with the safety car and the strategy worked out perfectly but that’s how racing goes sometimes. I wasn’t just first because I was the quickest at the time but I was quickest on track and I think that was the first good sign we had and then it turned into something more."

McLaren will be keeping a close eye on the performance of the car relative to Red Bull because if the car works well, we could be looking at a much closer contest for the rest of the season.