The McLaren driver ruled out his own team and believes the SF-26 will adapt better to the principality's slow corners, the British team has three reliability issues in five races and is 41 points behind Ferrari in the championship.
McLaren is not going through its best moment and Lando Norris knows it. The British team has three reliability issues in the first five races of the season (Australia, China and Canada) and their last failure cost him a retirement in Montreal when the podium was within reach, a bad streak that has allowed Ferrari to open a 41 point gap in the constructors' championship. Now the calendar moves to Monaco and the Briton has already made his prediction, Ferrari is the favorite.
"Monaco was also a circuit that convinced us last year, honestly I think Ferrari will be on pole next weekend in Monaco, their low speed performance is much better than the others. I'm looking forward to Monaco because it's Monaco, I had success there last year and it was one of my best weekends, the most exciting" declared Norris to the media, ruling himself out of the fight for victory despite having won in the principality last year.
McLaren has had an irregular start to the season with a competitive car that is currently second on the grid, but the team has not managed to take full advantage of that advantage and has left valuable points along the way.
In the races they have participated in they have been ahead of Ferrari, as in Japan, and the upgrade package introduced in Miami gave them good results with a double in the sprint and a double podium in the main race, but inconsistency and strategic errors are weighing down their aspirations.
The urban layout of Monaco will be an unknown with the new regulations, it will be the first circuit with an extreme configuration along with Monza, and Norris believes that Ferrari's SF-26 will adapt better to the principality's slow corners.
We have to see how the Monaco GP develops, but in the last two years the dominators have been Ferrari and McLaren: in 2024 Charles Leclerc won with both Italian drivers on the podium, while in 2025 it was Norris who took the victory with a double podium for McLaren.
Mercedes, for its part, has a pending debt with Monaco, since 2022 they have not been able to get past fifth place in the race and last season was one of their worst performances when their drivers did not manage to score because the W16 was not competitive on that track.
This year the situation is different because the Germans have the best car by far over the rest, but Norris still sees Ferrari as the team to beat on the streets of the principality.
