Lando Norris Delivers Stark McLaren Verdict

Lando Norris has described the current McLaren as one of the most difficult cars he has driven in Formula 1 after an uncompetitive British GP 2026 weekend.

Norris still finished fourth at Silverstone, but the result did not reflect McLaren’s pure performance across the event. The Woking-based team lacked the pace to challenge Mercedes and Ferrari, having also endured a difficult weekend one week earlier in Austria.

After qualifying, Norris had already admitted McLaren was simply slow and suggested its rivals had out-developed the team over recent rounds. That situation carried into the race, where Norris was more than 40 seconds behind the leader before the late safety car artificially reduced the gap.

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“Everything but the result, pretty shocking,” Norris told media including RacingNews365.

“I don't know how we finished P4 today, honestly. A big part of it nowadays is reliability.”

“I don't know what happened to Kimi Antonelli and Max Verstappen but a big part of it is just not making mistakes and reliability. We got that bit right.”

Norris’ result was helped by problems for several rivals, including Kimi Antonelli and Max Verstappen. With McLaren not at its strongest, fourth place came more from clean execution and survival than outright pace.

Norris stressed that the main issue remains the car’s behaviour. He said McLaren’s pace was poor and described the car as unpleasant to drive, with several areas requiring attention if the team is to return to a competitive level.

“The pace was pretty poor, so it's not nice,” he said. “It's not a nice car to drive.”

“[It is] maybe one of the hardest cars I've ever driven in F1. So there are many things we need to do better.”

Norris’ verdict places McLaren in an important evaluation phase after two consecutive difficult weekends. If its development and car-balance issues are not addressed quickly, pressure on the team will increase as Mercedes and Ferrari continue to strengthen their performance advantage before the next round.