Lando Norris had a relatively uneventful afternoon in Melbourne, ending the opening race of 2026 in 5th place. Despite showing flashes of promise in Free Practice, McLaren were ultimately underwhelming this weekend.
McLaren were not seen as one of the favourites after pre-season, but the MCL40 was still expected to be in the mix. At least so far, the Woking-based team have fallen short of expectations.
More concerning than their finishing position was the 51 second gap to Russell in first. This deficit, especially given they have a Mercedes power unit, shows a lot of margin for improvement on the chassis side.
However, Lando Norris does not believe Mercedes have the fastest package to start the 2026 season.
Norris says Ferrari are the early benchmark
Although McLaren and Norris are the reigning Champions, they were not expected to maintain their titles in the build-up to Australia. This consensus appears consistent with the MCL40’s relatively uninspiring showing to start the year.
On paper, as an established top team with Mercedes power, the British team should be well-positioned to fight at the very front in 2026.
With that said, McLaren were committed to last year’s title race until quite late in the season. This exhausted some of the wind tunnel hours that would have otherwise been dedicated to the new regulations.
By extension, Andrea Stella’s personnel are still trying to optimise the new Mercedes engine. Therefore, there is still a sizable chunk of lap-time on the table to tap into.
Still, even after optimising their existing package, McLaren will need updates. Their current deficit to the Silver Arrows (roughly 8 tenths per lap on Sunday) cannot be erased without upgrades to the MCL40.
Conscious of the team’s position, Lando Norris outlined how he sees the pecking order.
Surprisingly, the World Champion named Ferrari – rather than Mercedes – as the best package at this stage:
“We finished where we deserved to,” The Independent quotes him as saying. “Red Bull is clearly quicker – Max came from last and almost beat us.
“We made some tweaks, [but] we’re nowhere near where we need to be. Clearly, from a car perspective, we’re a long way off – a long, long way off…
“This is nothing that is going to happen overnight, or one, or two weeks time. I was almost a lap off [the leaders], not quite.
“Ferrari, from what we see, have the best car. Their cornering speeds are unbelievable. To match that? Zero chance.
“We have to learn from this part of the season. The more we learn, the more we understand – the better we’ll be at the end of the season.”
Optimisation and development
At this early stage of this regulatory cycle, the process of optimisation and refinement should not be underestimated. Simply by better understanding these new cars and how they function, teams can take a big step.
Aston Martin’s progress from Friday to Saturday (worth about 1.5 seconds) came exclusively from set-up tweaks. In this sense, McLaren know better than to hit the panic button about their 2026 baseline.
Of course, this does not mean McLaren aren’t pushing to bring improvements. To start the year, however, Stella’s personnel knew they were starting out with a basic concept.
The team were relatively transparent after testing about the fact they wouldn’t bring any major updates to Australia.
In this sense, the MCL40 potentially lost a step or two compared to its immediate rivals – which brought a series of renovations between testing and round one.
More broadly, though, mid-season development will be the deciding factor in 2026. Norris himself recognises this, having referenced the importance of this area in his Thursday media duties.
The hope for Norris and Piastri will be for McLaren, as in previous campaigns, to rapidly climb the pecking order. Under such a radically new generation of cars, repeating past successes will be difficult.
Regardless, this is the task facing Andrea Stella and Zak Brown’s personnel.