Lando Norris Admits the Worst for McLaren After a Disappointing United States GP

Lando Norris admitted that McLaren’s position in the championship standings was “pretty obvious” after a disappointing outing at the United States Grand Prix. Norris and his teammate Oscar Piastri finished fifth and seventh, respectively, on Sunday, failing yet again to secure a podium spot for the Woking-based squad.

“Yeah, I think it’s pretty obvious,” Norris told Motorsports.com when asked if McLaren has slipped to the fourth-fastest team.

This result has had a significant impact on the Constructors’ Championship. McLaren entered the United States GP in third position, seven points ahead of Red Bull Racing. Both teams left the weekend with the same number of points (355), but McLaren has now dropped to fourth place with five rounds left in the season.

Lando Norris Calls Out McLaren’s Biggest Weakness

After the race, the British driver explained that he had hoped McLaren could find a breakthrough in performance. Much to his disappointment, the current package isn’t delivering the improvements needed to fight at the front. Rival teams Ferrari and Mercedes showed impressive pace this weekend while McLaren slowly drifted away from the top.

“Yeah, I’m just hoping you put something on, and it’s magical, and you go a lot quicker and you’re fighting for a podium all of a sudden,” Norris said.

“Things are all working as they should, but all the teams, Ferrari, brought upgrades and all the teams are still bringing upgrades, so they’re delivering.”

Lando Norris believes the lack of rear-end performance in slow-speed corners is a longstanding issue that McLaren has yet to resolve.

“Just not, I guess, just not really in all the places that we need them to, like the slow-speed corners, we’re just nowhere near at the level we need to be. We need a lot more rear and slow-speed. It’s been our issue for a long time now. It seems to be very hard to tackle.”

Lando Norris Finished a Distant Fifth at COTA

Norris, who entered the season as the defending champion, didn’t have a fruitful 2026 campaign by his standards.

Norris started the race eighth on the grid and fought his way up, running in the podium mix before fading to fifth in the closing stages as his hard tyres wore out. He finished behind winner Kimi Antonelli, Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen, and Lewis Hamilton, 30 seconds off the pace of the Mercedes.

Following the U.S. Grand Prix, Norris is also mathematically eliminated from the 2026 World Drivers’ Championship. Antonelli secured his ninth win of the season and needs just two points to become the youngest F1 champion next weekend in Mexico.

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Written by

Yash Soni

Yash Soni is a Formula 1 writer with over four years of experience in digital sports journalism. He specializes in F1 news, race analysis, team updates, and paddock stories. With a strong focus on accuracy, research, and SEO-driven storytelling, he aims to deliver engaging and informative coverage that keeps motorsport fans up to date with the latest developments in Formula 1.

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