McLaren’s season has been transformed form the start of the year, and before the summer break Lando Norris secured back-to-back podium places for the first time in his career.
Norris took second place at Silverstone and in Hungary, with the outcome of a technical overhaul of the car paying dividends to lift the young English driver up the field.
After the first seven races in the season, he had recorded just 12 points, including finishing at the back of the field in the first two races in Jeddah and Bahrain.
The MCL60 car underwent a significant technical upgrade after the Montreal race on 18 June, where Norris finished outside the points in 13th place.
But by 9 July, things had turned around, and Norris finished second to Max Verstappen at Silverstone, giving McLaren their first podium of the season, and turning his total of 12 points for the season to 69 by the summer break.
Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, who sits second in the drivers championship behind teammate Max Verstappen said he expected to see Norris more often on the podium.
“I think from where they were in Bahrain – or not even in Bahrain [just] before Silverstone – the step that they made these last two races on very different tracks layouts, I think it’s impressive. And I do expect to see Lando a lot more up here. They’ve done an incredible job,” he said, reported by the F1 website.
Verstappen was also asked about the recent rise of the 23-year-old and said: “First of all, I think it’s quite incredible to see where they were in Bahrain and where they are now, McLaren. But I think Lando has done extremely well.
“But this is also not a surprise to me. It’s just good to see finally that when you have a competent car that you can do a good job and he’s here in P2, twice. It doesn’t need a number even.”
