McLaren arrives at the Hungarian F1 GP with a comprehensive update package for the MCL40, and Lando Norris believes the new features can help the team overcome difficulties faced throughout the season. Still, the Briton prefers to adopt a cautious approach before creating expectations about immediate results.
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Current drivers’ champion, the 2025 champion occupies only fifth position in the championship and achieved two podiums in the first ten rounds of the year. The main highlight of the changes is a new floor, accompanied by other aerodynamic evolutions, in addition to the evaluation of an experimental rear wing during FP1.
Asked about expectations for the weekend in Budapest, the competitor avoided guaranteeing that the updates will have an immediate effect. “We probably still have the best complete power unit package. So, we were confident for a good weekend in Spa-Francorchamps. We remain hopeful that it can also be a good weekend here, but, honestly, it’s a wait and see how the update behaves.”
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“We want to be optimistic. We want to believe that it solves some of the problems we are facing and that currently limit our performance. There have been some updates this year that perhaps didn’t work exactly as we expected. That’s why I think we are being a bit more cautious, I certainly am, waiting to see if everything works exactly as we expect,” he said.
Even with the conservative stance, Norris believes that the Hungaroring could favor McLaren if the new package delivers the expected gain. “If it works, it should certainly give us a good boost and add a good amount of performance to the car. It’s a track where we have normally been competitive in the past. I hope the combination of this car with this circuit allows us to have a good weekend. I’m looking forward to it,” he concluded.
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