The ‘Horrible’ F1 Car Lando Norris Turned Into a Race Winner

Lando Norris has starred in one of the most curious statements of the season, the British driver, far from lamenting McLaren's decline in the last races has defended the team's progress with an argument that borders on irony: the car has been "horrible" all year and even so they managed to win, a paradox that perfectly summarizes the roller coaster that 2026 has been for the Woking team.

"The car has been horrible and difficult to drive all season it's just that other teams have brought many more updates since then and have improved much more than us, there is nothing more than that. The team is still doing a good job considering that we were almost a second and a half behind at the beginning of the year, a second behind, the fact that we even won almost three races was quite a considerable achievement in itself so I think we have had a fairly good year, if we want to see it from that perspective, of course we demand ourselves at a very high level and we want to win everything we can, we started very far behind at the beginning of the season and we have done a good job to catch up. We have done better than most of the other teams on the grid" Norris declared at Thursday's press conference in Mexico City.

The Briton is right in his analysis: McLaren started 2026 with a double retirement in China, a disastrous start that presaged the worst, however the team knew how to recover and based on work and updates, achieved two consecutive victories with Norris in Hungary and the Netherlands, a third victory in Madrid escaped due to a Virtual Safety Car that arrived at the least opportune moment. With a car that he himself describes as "horrible" Norris achieved three triumphs, a sample of his talent and of McLaren's ability to overcome adversity, but the current reality is very different since McLaren has lost ground against its rivals and now finds itself tied on points with Red Bull in the fight for third place in the constructors' championship.

Max Verstappen's two recent victories have been determining for the Milton Keynes team to close the gap and Oscar Piastri, Norris's teammate, acknowledges that keeping Red Bull at bay will be complicated in the remaining races: "You just have to keep fighting, I think at this moment we know that we are not as consistently competitive as Red Bull but we are still adding performance to the car and there are many things that can happen. Reliability has been a big topic this year so there are still many ways it can change but clearly, in pure performance, we need to take some steps forward and we still have some things to come to the car that we hope will help. I think for us it is going to be a big challenge to stay ahead of Red Bull but we are always willing to it" the Australian noted.

McLaren faces the last races of the season with the need to balance the defense of its position in the championship with the preparation of the 2027 car. The paradox of a "horrible" car that won races is a reminder that, in Formula 1, success does not always depend on the fastest car but on a team's ability to adapt, overcome and take advantage of opportunities.

McLaren has demonstrated having that ability, and Norris and Piastri will continue fighting until the end to close the year in the best possible way.