Despite finishing P4, Lando Norris described driving McLaren’s MCL40 as one of the “most difficult” parts of the 2026 F1 British GP weekend.
Norris struggled for pace throughout the entire Silverstone weekend, finishing FP1 in P7, qualifying sixth for the Sprint, taking a P3 Sprint podium, and then also qualifying P6 for Sunday’s race. Speaking after Qualifying, Norris shared that McLaren was “just slow.”
Throughout the race, Norris completed a three-stop strategy and spent much of his time running sixth or seventh. Unable to fight for the top positions with his poor pace, he inherited fourth place late on as Kimi Antonelli fell down the grid with an issue, and Max Verstappen went off into the gravel, triggering a later safety car. Although the field looked set for a final-lap restart, Race Control ultimately decided to finish the race under the safety car, redeploying it.
Norris: “Many things we need to do better”
Speaking after the 2026 F1 British GP in the print media pen, Norris noted that his P4 finish did not reflect the car’s true performance, describing it as slow and difficult to drive.
“I mean, everything but the result, pretty shocking. I don’t know how we finished P4 today, honestly. Yeah, I think a big part of it nowadays is reliability. I don’t know what happened to Kimi, and things like that… and Max.”
He continued: “A big part of it is just not making mistakes and reliability, and we got that bit right today, but the pace was… it was pretty poor. Not nice, not a nice car to drive, one of the hardest cars I’ve driven in Formula 1. So, yeah, many things we need to do better.”
Behind in development
When asked whether the track conditions at Silverstone impacted the car’s performance, Norris answered: “We’ve been slow all year.”
Despite claiming his season-best P2 result at the 2026 F1 Miami GP, Norris shared that since then, the team hasn’t introduced any major upgrades to the MCL40. In fact, the World Champion admitted that the team is “two, three months behind” in upgrades. The lack of upgrades has been evident in McLaren’s recent results, with Mercedes and Ferrari making significant steps forward in development.
“Yeah, I don’t know why,” he said when reminded of Miami. “Other people didn’t do a good job I guess. There’s no way we can finish P2 in Miami and have a car like this today, you know. Other people have brought a lot of upgrades and updates since, and we kind of haven’t, so, yeah, nothing that has brought us that much performance. I don’t know, the car was just undrivable, honestly.”
Trouble from lights out to the chequered flag
Reflecting on the chaotic closing stages, Norris revealed that he was prepared for a last-lap shootout before Race Control decided to finish the race behind the safety car.
“Of course, I was told. Can’t do much.”
Norris also explained that a poor launch off the line left him vulnerable on the opening lap as he dropped to P7, while teammate Oscar Piastri had a better getaway.
“No, Oscar had a good start. My start was bad, Oscar’s was very good. I just had wheelspin, I don’t know why.”
Although Piastri made the better start, the McLaren teammates endured contrasting races. While Norris crossed the line in P4 thanks to late drama, Piastri finished outside the points in P11 after suffering from contact on the opening lap.
Norris finds positives after 2026 F1 British GP
Having fulfilled his childhood dream of winning his home race in 2025, Norris explained that while he enjoyed the support from his fans this year, driving the MCL40 proved to be the biggest challenge of the weekend.
“Yeah, I mean, the same as always. I am not a fan of it. It’s not how Formula 1 should be,” he began, pointing at his mixed results. “But that’s the way it is. So, I can’t really complain anymore, you know. I’m just happy that I’m here racing, I have an amazing grandstand, I have amazing fans. So I enjoy the experience.”
He added: “I maybe don’t enjoy driving the… Driving is maybe the thing I found most difficult this weekend, but still, a P4 is a good result and a P3 yesterday. It’s not as good as what it could be. We all know that. Everyone knows that, but it will get better hopefully.”
When asked about how difficult it is to overtake when their car doesn’t have strong pace, Norris briefly concluded: “Yup, been like it all year. I mean, we don’t need to say a lot.”
