Lando Norris has delivered a sobering verdict on his and McLaren’s 2026 Formula 1 prospects following an underwhelming Australian Grand Prix.
Reigning champions Norris and McLaren endured a difficult start to F1’s new rules era at Albert Park.
He qualified a distant sixth, almost a second away from polesitter George Russell’s Mercedes, setting up a difficult race.
Sunday showed the gulf between McLaren and Mercedes, Norris finishing a staggering 51 seconds behind Russell, a stark contrast to dominating in 2025.
Norris delivered a sobering verdict after the race, laying bare the scale of the mountain has to climb to return to the front of the field, believing Ferrari currently holds the advantage.
“We’re nowhere near where we need to be, clearly. But probably more so from a car perspective,” he admitted to Sky Sports F1.
“I think [the race] showed a lot more from a car that we’re a long way off, like a very, very long way off, and we have a lot of work to do. [Improving the car], this is nothing that’s going to happen overnight or in one week or two weeks’ time.
“I don’t know what the gap was, 50s? Almost a second a lap off. So, not quite like that, but you would say at least five tenths [to] six tenths a lap off. Some of that is still understanding the PU. Some of it’s just a better car.
“I think Ferrari, from what we see, quite clearly they have the best car. Their cornering speeds are unbelievable.”
Work to do for McLaren and Lando Norris
Norris admitted McLaren faces a “tough” season, highlighting that Red Bull may even jumped the reigning champions in the competitive order.
“For us to match that is zero chance at the minute, and we have to work very hard to understand things and learn as much as we can from this part of the season because this part of the season now sets up the rest of it,” he said.
“So, the more we can learn, the more we can understand, the better we’ll be at the end of the season. But, yeah, it’s looking like it’s going to be a long one, a tough one. But I was happy with P5.”
“I think it was really quite clear the Red Bull was a lot quicker, just because Max came from last and almost beat us,” he said.
“So, not the best race in terms of pace, but we struggled with some things on the car at the beginning. We made some tweaks and that certainly improved things.”
Norris was both realistic and downcast after the Australian GP, aware of the chasm he and McLaren face. The chances of race victories in 2026 right now look bleak.
Concerns from Andrea Stella about the power delivery differences between Mercedes and its customers will be interesting to see play out.
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