Lando Norris highlighted that McLaren needs to work to resolve chronic tire wear issues, evidenced in the Formula 1 Australian GP. The Briton finished 51 seconds behind winner George Russell, despite both cars sharing the Mercedes power unit, considered a benchmark on the current grid.
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“With the slipstream and overtaking, all these things make a big difference, so on pure pace, are we 50 seconds behind? No,” Norris told the press.
The British driver stated that, even with performance affected by traffic and rapid tire wear, McLaren still needs to fix the graining of the compounds, a problem present in the team’s previous models: “If I had a clean race like George’s, it would have been better for us, but we had our tires destroyed after three laps. And then we have our graining issues, as we had, and that hasn’t changed from one car to another, so we have a lot to try to figure out,” he said.
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Norris also commented on the team’s position on the grid: “The positive side is that we have a big advantage over the cars behind, similar to Red Bull Racing, and the negative is that we have a big gap to the cars ahead. So the race served more to understand that we are nowhere near where we need to be with the car, and we have to improve that,” added the current F1 champion.
The Briton made it clear that McLaren is looking towards 2026 with a focus on correcting structural problems with the car, especially related to tire performance, to reduce the deficit to the leading teams, which at the moment are Mercedes and Ferrari.
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