Lando Norris: One 'lucky' podium in 2022 F1 season is not a good enough job by the whole McLaren team

Lando Norris was unsatisfied with the only podium finish McLaren had during the length of the 2022 F1 season. He stated that the team getting 'lucky' in scoring the P3 finish was a major event and that he wanted to embrace every finish with his hard work. He also talked about the team's ups and downs throughout the season, referring to the difference they had in many races.

While talking to Motorsport, Norris said:

“A podium always means something. It means something to me, means something to the team. But one isn't enough. One is like, we got lucky, and all of this stuff. You want to feel like you deserve to be there every time and we deserved to be there for sure. We weren't quick enough to be there. We were kind of way ahead of where we deserve to be."

He also stated that just one podium isn't enough for the team and that he would want to achieve more, and so would McLaren. He said:

“But yeah, one time isn't enough for me. It's not a good enough job by the whole team.”

During the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc made an error in the final stages of the race. This gave Lando Norris an advantage as he moved ahead and finished P3 to score his first and only podium finish in the entire 2022 season. Interestingly, this also made him and McLaren the only team to have a podium finish other than the top three teams of the season.

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Lando Norris mentions McLaren's 'ups and downs' throughout the length of the season

McLaren had a tough season, and although Lando Norris performed impressively, he wasn't good enough to carry the team alone. In their battle for the 4th place finish with Alpine, they eventually lost after the race in Abu Dhabi. The race, however, was still satisfactory for the team.

McLaren were unpredictable in terms of pace and performance, which was something Norris mentioned, as he said:

“We found it difficult. We've been quite up and down. We've had a weekend like [Abu Dhabi] where we've been quick. And then we were in Brazil, which was one of our worst weekends of the whole season."

With Oscar Piastri in the team for the 2023 season, Lando Norris and McLaren are expected to grow. At the same time, however, the team has revealed that they are 18 months behind in their development. All in all, the upcoming season could again turn out to be unpredictable for the team.