Norris Admits McLaren Are 'Three Months Behind' Rivals at the Red Bull Ring

Norris Sets Out the Scale of McLaren's 2026 Challenge

Lando Norris delivered a candid assessment of McLaren's position in the 2026 Formula 1 development race on Thursday ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix, telling media the team are behind where they need to be. ^[1]

Norris entered the 2026 season as the reigning World Champion, but McLaren have yet to win a race under the sport's new technical regulations. ^[1] The team has been restricted to occasional podium finishes, and their results have been further damaged by a string of reliability failures across the opening rounds. ^[1]

"Two, Three Months Behind"

When asked how much further McLaren could raise their performance level beyond the small step seen in Barcelona, Norris was direct. He said closing the gap would require not one upgrade but several, and placed the team's overall deficit in stark terms. ^[1] "We're like two, three months behind," Norris said, adding that "hopefully over the next three, four, five months, we can catch up and narrow the gap." ^[1]

Norris also pointed to the "huge effort" required across the entire organisation, while stressing that the team remained motivated and believed a recovery was achievable. ^[1]

Experimental Rear Wing in Friday Practice

One visible element of that development push arrived at the Red Bull Ring in the form of an experimental rear wing fitted to Norris's MCL40 for Friday practice only. ^[3] The design belongs to the same family of inverted or "Macarena" rear wing concepts first seen on the Ferrari SF-26 during pre-season testing and subsequently adopted by Red Bull in Miami. ^[3] Ferrari and Red Bull debuted their versions in race trim at Miami, nearly two months before McLaren brought its own prototype to Austria for evaluation. ^[4]

Oscar Piastri confirmed at Thursday's press conference that the wing would not be raced this weekend. ^[2] McLaren Technical Director of Applied Engineering Neil Houldey described the Austria package as including "minor detail updates around the car's rear corners, as well as an experimental rear wing that will run throughout Friday's sessions." ^[2]

:::analysis The three-month gap Norris described aligns with the rough timeline between Ferrari's pre-season wing debut and McLaren's first on-track test of its own version. Reaching race-ready status on that concept will take further evaluation, meaning the performance benefit is weeks away at minimum. McLaren's challenge is structural rather than one upgrade deep, and Norris's language made clear the team is not expecting a sudden return to the front of the field before the summer break. :::

Season Context

McLaren sit third in the Constructors' Championship, well behind second-placed Ferrari. ^[5] Norris himself is sixth in the Drivers' standings, with reliability problems including retirements at Canada and Monaco compounding a difficult start. ^[6] Mercedes and Ferrari are the two teams to have taken race victories in 2026. ^[1]

:::analysis A Barcelona third-place finish, aided by a late Antonelli retirement, offered a modest data point of progress. Whether Austria delivers more depends on how the MCL40's known characteristics interact with the Red Bull Ring's power-sensitive layout, which places a premium on straight-line speed and traction from low-speed corners. The picture will not be fully clear until the upgraded rear wing concept is race-ready. :::

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