At the 2026 F1 Monaco GP, Lando Norris suffered his second consecutive DNF due to his power unit. On lap 45 of the 78-lap race, the Briton was struck with his second battery-related issue of the weekend and was told to retire the car from a net P8.
This marked the third retirement or non-start Norris has faced due to a car issue this season. At the 2026 F1 Canadian GP, he had a challenging weekend, and a gearbox failure forced him to retire on lap 40. Earlier in the season, the reigning World Champion failed to start the Chinese GP due to an electrical issue.
Norris speaks on his retirement at the 2026 F1 Monaco GP
Lando Norris had started the 2026 F1 Monaco GP in P8. At the race start, Alpine’s Pierre Gasly had overtaken the Briton, which resulted in the McLaren driver stuck behind the Frenchman for the majority of the race prior to his retirement.
Norris discussed his on-track battle with Gasly and added that he was not surprised he was not able to reclaim the position. Especially since overtaking was notoriously difficult at the Circuit de Monaco.
“It’s impossible to overtake. So yeah. But I don’t know why, that’s not the expectation of everyone. That’s Monaco for forever.”
When reflecting on his early retirement from the race, the Briton admitted that there was not much he could have done. According to Norris, he was facing complications with his power unit since the beginning of the 2026 F1 Monaco GP weekend.
“Not a lot, like at the end, it just went pretty much immediately. There were some issues at the beginning, and then more in the middle, and I don’t know if they’re related or not. I just got told to retire the car, so not a lot I can do nowadays.”
The reigning world champion also shared that he speculated that he was facing issues with his power unit early on. This stemmed from the noises he could hear coming from his MCL40.
“Yeah, it was just a lot of stuff I could hear from the engine, the turbo, the battery, a lot of things that don’t sound correct. We tried to fix it, but it made the problem worse. We put it back, so I had the problems again. You have to live with it, and then in the end, they just completely wasted.“
Norris still has hopes for the championship
Lando Norris now sits P6 in the 2026 F1 Drivers’ Championship with 58 points to his name. Following the 2026 F1 Monaco GP, he is 98 points behind current championship leader Kimi Antonelli.
Despite the deficit of almost 100 points from Antonelli, Norris still believes he has a shot at winning the 2026 Drivers’ Championship. He explained that it was still too early in the season and even brought up Max Verstappen’s 2025 season to further explain his point.
“I have to. Max came back from that much last year, so I never want to rule it out, especially so early on in the season.”
Norris then explained that although he was not as optimistic in Monaco, he maintains confidence in himself and the team after a stronger weekend in Miami.
The Briton added that they will be looking into the lack of pace at the 2026 F1 Monaco GP and take inspiration from Mercedes, who continued to dominate the track in Monte Carlo.
“But when you’re 6th in qualifying around Monaco, it’s hard to find too many positives from that. But you just look back to a couple of weeks ago in Miami, we fought for a win. We probably should have won the race. The fact we can go from almost winning a race against a Mercedes to being so far off is pretty crazy.
“It shows that the car works quite specifically in certain scenarios and clearly not in others. So the team needs to understand this, we need to understand how we can develop the car more well-rounded. Like the Mercedes is proving to be. For now, we just have to keep working, that’s all we can do.”
On backing up Russell to support teammate Piastri at the 2026 F1 Monaco GP
On lap 42 of the 2026 F1 Monaco GP, McLaren had instructed Norris to hold Russell back. The team aimed to form a gap large enough for Piastri to make a pit stop and rejoin the track ahead of the Mercedes.
Norris slowed down and bottlenecked Russell behind for close to two laps before speeding up.
When asked about the moment, the Briton replied that he was just supporting his teammate Piastri.
“I was just trying to help Oscar.”
Unreliability
On car gremlins so far in 2026, Norris pointed out the issues Russell is having when it was put to him that McLaren are having more issues than Mercedes.
He was realistic when it came to summing things up and having more car problems than his own teammate Oscar Piastri.
“I wouldn’t say George is having the best season either, would you? It just seems that’s the struggles we have. I think Mercedes has had a fair share of issues. Oscar less than me, and Kimi less than George. That’s just the way it is sometimes. Sometimes that’s just life. Nothing I can do, I just go out and try to do the best I can, and that’s all I can really achieve”
Norris also revealed the extent of his struggles with his power unit. According to the Briton, he is already on his last permitted power unit and battery of the 2026 F1 season. The 26-year-old hopes he can avoid having to change power units once again and be hit with the penalty. He added that there is still plenty of work to be done with the team.
“The problem is I’m on my third power unit already. I’m on my third battery anymore and I’m taking penalties from this point onwards. Hopefully that’s not the case. I don’t know what to expect nowadays. It seems like every weekend we have something. But it’s not just McLaren, it’s Mercedes as well. Between HPP and McLaren, we have to do a better job because it’s not good enough at the minute.“
McLaren has to gain a better understanding of the MCL40
Norris reflected on McLaren’s performance at the 2026 F1 Monaco GP and shared that he hoped to retain the pace the team showed in Miami.
At the Miami GP, McLaren showcased strong pace with Norris and Piastri claiming P2 and P3, respectively.
The Briton then admitted that he could not understand the lack of performance in Monaco, especially compared to Montreal.
“It’s variable, I think. It would be nice to see if we can get some of the pace back that we had in Miami. At the same time I don’t understand how we were quick in Montreal and struggled here. I didn’t think we were expected to be quick in Montreal. We seemed to be pretty quick and I seemed to get a lot out of the car myself. Here we just didn’t have a chance of doing that at all.”
While Norris understood that the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and the Circuit de Monaco had vastly different racing profiles, the deficit in performance was still too drastic to comprehend. It came after he should have won in Miami, until McLaren got the strategy wrong.
Despite a challenging weekend at the 2026 F1 Monaco GP, Norris remains optimistic as he approaches the Spanish GP.
“There’s still a big difference in tracks between here and Canada. The fact that we could be a tenth and a bit off a pole, and we’re six here, is pretty insane. So it’ll be good to go back to Barcelona and just see how the car stacks up.
“I still believe it’s shown good signs. It clearly has. We almost won a race, and we should have won a race in Miami. It clearly works in places, we just need to understand why it’s so good in certain ones and really so bad in others.”
