Norris sees early gains from McLaren upgrades in Sao Paulo

Lando Norris has taken encouragement from McLaren's latest upgrades after a productive opening day at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. McLaren was the only team to introduce significant developments at Interlagos, bringing a revised front wing, rear wing, beam wing and floor furniture in an effort to extract more performance from its car.

Norris finished inside the top three in both practice sessions and said the upgrades appeared to be working as they should. He described the day as positive, while noting that Mercedes had enjoyed an advantage during the afternoon session. The changes were aimed at adding load and grip rather than altering the car's handling characteristics, which have been tricky this season.

McLaren's Senior Director of Racing Randy Singh said the data from both sessions indicated the new package was delivering as anticipated. Norris cautioned that engineers still needed to analyse the information before drawing firm conclusions.