Norris says McLaren 'don't have the car' to fight for title after Zandvoort win

On 23 August 2026 Lando Norris said he and McLaren "don't have the car I need to fight for a championship" after winning the final Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort.

Norris's victory at Zandvoort was his second successive win after Hungary last month and moved him up to fourth in the drivers' standings. The result revived talk of a mid-season recovery similar to last year's, when after this race Oscar Piastri had a 34-point lead over Norris and 104 over Max Verstappen, yet Verstappen finished the season just two points behind Norris as he won the title in Abu Dhabi.

The Zandvoort result leaves Norris 83 points adrift of the championship lead held by Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli; Norris and McLaren passed Antonelli on track after losing the lead at a chaotic start. Antonelli's team-mate George Russell is tied on points with Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton, each 59 behind the Italian.

Norris set out his reasons for doubting a sustained title bid, detailing strength in high-speed corners and weakness in slow-speed performance: "I'm confident because we clearly have a strong car," he said. "We have a strong car in certain areas. It's not like last year where we were pretty good everywhere. "We're very, very strong in high speed, and that's the place we've improved the car the most, is high-speed performance. No one matches us in high speed, and that's a good thing. "My pace advantage to Mercedes in Turn Seven, Eight was crazy, but their advantage that they have to us in slow speed is also crazy. "And therefore, I don't have the confidence to say, 'Yeah, I can easily fight for a championship for the rest of the season.' "I know I've just won two races in a row and had two poles in a row, but at the minute I don't have the car I need to fight for a championship. And I know that's quite a big comment."

McLaren have introduced upgrades that produced wins in Hungary and the Netherlands, and Norris's Zandvoort success was built around an off-set strategy and "devastating pace" on the hard tyres in the second stint, according to the report. Reigning constructors' champions McLaren sit third, 162 points behind leaders Mercedes.

Team principal Andrea Stella praised Norris's progress and set a short-term target: “If we can confirm our improvements in Monza, then we can look with some optimism at the remainder of the season.” Stella added: "Lando is driving and operating at a very high level," and, "He's driving at the level of a world champion. "What I like the most of his journey in Formula 1 is that he keeps improving. "After the start of the 2025 season, something clicked, which is not only a single click, but it's a way of working with Lando, for Lando, and that we are adopting also on Oscar's side now in particular. "This approach has led Lando to continuous improvements. "It's almost like I see Lando stronger and stronger race by race. Because I think this weekend was nowhere near a weekend in which we could fight for the victory for granted, especially after having seen the performance in the sprint (in which Norris was passed by Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and finished third). "But we invested in trying to understand where was the opportunity from a tyre exploitation point of view and car improvement. "And then when you have conditions in which the car slides in the race, there's not much grip, then I think he is the master in these kind of conditions."

Norris described his own development since a difficult start to 2025, saying: "I was driving at a high level the second half of last year," and adding, "It's tough to say, but I do think it's a trickier car to drive this year in some ways. And I think you can see that because the gaps between team-mates are often bigger this year, I would say, than it was last year. "I do believe I'm able to understand situations better, to understand the car in a better way. It's still just horrible to drive, but I'm doing a better job at just understanding this, relaying this to my team, figuring stuff out. "So, it's not just I'm driving better on track. I'm certainly eliminating my weaknesses on track, and I don't have so many, but it's also how I work off the track. And for me, yesterday to today is a perfect example of the work we put in overnight transformed our race and gave me the opportunity to win."

McLaren's progress comes as Mercedes have not upgraded their car since Canada in May and have been caught by McLaren and Ferrari; the next Mercedes upgrade "is not due until the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia in four races' time." For Antonelli — who faces a grid penalty at his home race in Italy next time out because he needs to take a new engine that exceeds his allowance as a consequence of early-season reliability problems — the deficit to McLaren is a concern. "Now as a team we need to find a little bit of time because McLaren have done a huge step," he said. "So for sure, in this race, it's going to be more difficult, it's going to be challenging, but we're ready to do our best and to maximise every opportunity. "And then hopefully it's going to be our turn to bring the package that's going to give us a little bit of the upper hand again."