Lando Norris Reflects on McLaren's 2026 Formula 1 Struggles

Lando Norris looks at the 2026 Formula 1 standings and sees a story that, in his mind, should read very differently.

McLaren, the double title winners of 2025, are only third in the constructors’ championship after 12 races. They sit on 263 points, adrift of Mercedes on 425 and Ferrari on 338. Norris himself is fourth in the drivers’ table with 159 points, chasing Andrea Kimi Antonelli on 242, with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton locked together on 183.

For a team that dominated last year, that gap stings.

A champion that stumbled out of the blocks

McLaren’s title defence never really got off the ground in the opening phase of 2026. Literally, in some cases. Three “Did Not Start” entries in the first two races, followed by three more retirements, ripped a hole in their campaign before it had even settled.

Points vanished. Momentum disappeared. Rivals escaped.

Only now, with wins in the last two races, have Norris and McLaren started to look like the force that crushed the field in 2025. The recovery is impressive, but the Briton knows the damage was done early.

“We should be further ahead,” Norris told the media. “We didn't even start a race. We've been pretty unlucky. We had a lot of problems at the beginning of the season.”

Those problems came against the backdrop of a new rules cycle. The 2026 regulations have reset the board, and Norris is clear: other teams hit the ground running.

“Mercedes have had a fair few as well. Ferrari are probably at the least. Yeah, I think it's a new regulation where other teams have done a very good job.”

Mercedes opened the year with authority. Ferrari then surged and have stayed “very, very strong,” as Norris put it. Red Bull have flickered in and out of contention, dangerous in patches, subdued in others. McLaren, by contrast, had to climb out of a hole of their own making.

Paying the price for 2025

Inside the team, nobody is pretending they didn’t see this risk coming. McLaren poured themselves into 2025, stretching resources to secure both titles. The payoff was huge, but the hangover has been real.

Norris is adamant that context matters when judging their current position.

He points to where McLaren were before last season’s transformation and how much energy went into finishing that job. The focus on 2025 meant 2026 development started on the back foot. The team expected to begin this year behind.

“I think we've easily done the best job when you look at everything from where we were last year,” he said. “Like I said, we were always going to start behind this season because of how much we focused on last year.

“It was inevitable that we were not going to start on the pace this season.”

The early chaos only exaggerated that deficit. But on pure development, Norris believes McLaren have outgunned the field.

“For us to catch up, we've out-developed them,” he said. “You're saying on a track like this, almost a second of our development from us as McLaren versus our competitors. So that's pretty insane, and I think that's the reason why we've also come on pretty strong.”

A closer era, but a cruel scoreboard

The scoreboard, though, refuses to flatter. Norris might see progress in the garage and on the timing screens, but the standings still carry a brutal truth.

“But I'm still 80 points behind, so I wouldn't say it's that close,” he admitted.

And yet, in the bigger picture, he sees something different about this regulation cycle. Compared to previous overhauls, the field has bunched up. The days of one team vanishing into the distance after a rule change have, at least for now, been kept in check.

Go back to 2014 and Mercedes’ early hybrid dominance. The gap was vast, the chase long. Even with the last major chassis shift, Red Bull built a cushion that took time to erode. This time, four teams – Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull – are running in far tighter formation.

“I think it's close. It's relatively close for a new regulation, that's for sure. It's definitely closer than what previous years have been with new regulations,” Norris said.

The irony is clear. Formula 1 has delivered one of its more compact eras after a rules reset, yet a handful of DNFs and DNSs have left the reigning champions playing catch-up.

McLaren have shown they can claw back performance. The question now is whether they can claw back time – and whether Norris can turn “we should be further ahead” into a title charge before the season runs out of road.