Three races down, 20 to go, and Lando says we’ll be taking them all “one race at a time.”

Although there’s room for improvement, the British racer believes he’s had the speed beneath him to finish in the top 10 in each of the opening rounds so far, with other factors impacting our scoreless opening two rounds.

Lando missed out on points in the season opener due to a pneumatic pressure leak that forced him to pit several times. He was then struck by debris at the start of the race in Saudi Arabia, forcing him into the pits and leaving him at the back of the field.

However, he returned to the top 10 in the season’s third round, finishing sixth at the Australian Grand Prix. With Oscar also scoring in Melbourne, the team jumped to fifth in the Teams’ standings ahead of a mini-break in the season.

Assessing the team’s start to the season, Lando said that he was pleased to show a more accurate picture of the MCL60’s pace in Australia than in Rounds 1 and 2, but he was keen to reiterate the work that lies ahead, with the team still far from where we want to be.

“There has been plenty of ups and downs,” Lando said. “We have been pretty unlucky on the whole, but our strongest weekend has been Australia by far. Not necessarily on Saturday, but certainly on the Sunday.

“We've learned that there are some good parts and some strengths to this car that we want to keep, but there are clearly some weaker areas that we are working on and focused on improving.

“On the whole, the team are doing a very good job, we just need to keep up the level of effort we are putting in.”

Team Principal Andrea Stella has been open about the changes needed to the MCL60, with upgrade packages planned throughout the season to increase the car’s overall performance.

After testing the MCL35M in Imola earlier this month, Lando has now returned to the McLaren Technology Centre, where work on those improvements continues. They’ll then head out to Azerbaijan, hoping to add to our points tally and keep up the positive momentum built last time out.

“There will be some races where we are performing well and some where we aren’t as strong, so we’ll just take it one race at a time,” Lando said. “We just want to maximise every weekend, so we’re not looking at the bigger picture just yet, but I don’t think we need to do too much differently. I believe we are doing a good job, working very well as a team, and working very hard. 

“When we are struggling a bit more with pace, that is when we have to step up and do an even better job. It is about how everyone works together to get everything out of the car that is possible.

“Everyone is doing a really good job, though, and they are all working as hard as they can. We're all really motivated because we know we have some good things in the pipeline for further down the line. Everyone is excited and working hard, and we will keep that up.”