Loading
Lando Norris may have won the last two grands prix, but the McLaren driver says his current package is still not strong enough to support a sustained championship fight.
The reigning world champion followed his Hungarian Grand Prix victory with an eventually dominant success at Zandvoort, moving to fourth in the drivers’ standings on 159 points. He remains 83 points behind leader Kimi Antonelli, while George Russell and Lewis Hamilton are tied for second on 183.
The result also underlined McLaren’s recent momentum. Norris has now taken successive victories and two consecutive poles, while Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli said after the Dutch Grand Prix that his team no longer had Formula 1’s fastest car. That assessment came as Mercedes continued to run the W17 without a major upgrade package for several races. Toto Wolff has said the team does not have the money to match the regular development efforts of McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull.
A related picture of the development battle is explored in Wolff: Mercedes Cannot Match Rivals’ Upgrade Spending This Year.
Norris’ caution is not based on a lack of outright pace. Instead, he identified a clear imbalance in the MCL40: McLaren is exceptionally strong through high-speed corners, but loses significant ground in slower sections.
“We have a strong car in certain areas,” Norris told media, including RacingNews365, when asked about his confidence for the Italian Grand Prix. “We’re very, very strong in high speed… No one matches us in high speed.”
He pointed to the contrast with Mercedes, describing McLaren’s advantage in Turns 7 and 8 as “crazy”, while calling Mercedes’ benefit in slow-speed corners equally significant. That trade-off is why Norris does not feel able to claim that he can “easily fight for a championship for the rest of the season”.
“At the minute I don’t have the car I need to fight for a championship,” he said, adding that he understands the performance level required from both himself and the car after last season.
Norris’ message to McLaren is therefore direct: the team must not become complacent after its latest victories. He wants greater focus on slow-speed performance, arguing that if those areas can be improved, he is confident he can win every remaining race. Without that progress, he believes the title challenge will be considerably harder.
He’s a software engineer with a deep passion for Formula 1 and motorsport. He co-founded Formula Live Pulse to make live telemetry and race insights accessible, visual, and easy to follow.