Norris Fears McLaren Are ‘Three Months Behind’ Key F1 Rivals

Lando Norris has been blunt in assessing McLaren's situation in the 2026 season, the British driver admitted that the Woking team is "three months behind" its rivals in the development race and that they will need "three, four or five" upgrades to return to the top of Formula 1. The world champion team in 2025 is currently third in the Constructors' World Championship with 141 points, far behind Mercedes' 262 and Ferrari's 190.

"One good upgrade is not enough, we need three, four or five, but it depends. Sometimes you take a small piece at a time, sometimes you try to do something to make it all fit together because it's a new philosophy. We are like two or three months behind the rest, that's not one upgrade" declared Norris at the Red Bull Ring, the Briton, fifth in the drivers' championship 83 points behind leader Kimi Antonelli, explained that the podium in Barcelona was a step forward but insufficient to recover lost ground.

"To catch up requires a huge effort from the team, which they are doing, and everyone is very excited and motivated because we know it's possible. We are like three months behind and that's a difficult task to overcome but everyone at McLaren knows we can achieve it and we're excited to try" said Norris, who trusts in his team's ability to react.

The McLaren driver lowered expectations for the weekend in Austria and explained that the team is testing a new experimental rear wing in free practice, but that it is not yet ready to compete: "For now not much more. I think [Andrea Stella's words] were more of a universal term for how we have to perform as a team, not simply that we have raised the bar and that we have done a better job because of that. P3 was great, but we still have to do much better than that, especially if we want to catch those ahead" he explained.

Norris acknowledged that the development delay is significant and that the team will need time to recover lost ground: "Hopefully in the next three, four or five months we can catch up and reduce the gap to be on their pace" said the Briton, who trusts that the team can come back.

The experimental rear wing that McLaren will test in Austria is just the first step of a long recovery path, the Woking team needs to score points regularly if it wants to get closer to Mercedes and Ferrari in the fight for the constructors' championship and the comeback will not be easy in a year in which the top of the grid is so tight.