Lando Norris has expressed his view that McLaren are “three months behind” their rivals in the 2026 development race, highlighting the “huge effort” that will be required to get back to winning ways.
Norris and McLaren entered the season as the reigning World Champions, but they have so far been limited to occasional podium finishes, with poor reliability also costing them valuable results and points.
Barcelona appeared to mark a small step forward on Norris’ side of the garage, with the Briton lining up fourth on the grid and finishing the race in third – capitalising on a late retirement for Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli.
Asked about team boss Andrea Stella’s comments that McLaren had “definitely raised the bar” in Barcelona, and how much more it can be raised in Austria this weekend, Norris replied: “For the time being, not a lot more.
“I think that was more a universal term for how we have to perform as a team – not just simply we raised the bar and we just did a better job because of that. P3 was great, but we still need to do a lot better than that, especially if we want to catch up.
“As a team, we’ve had to try and just extract more from every individual, including myself, so that’s what we did there already. That’s what we’ll continue to try and do.”
Pushed on whether one effective upgrade might be enough to push McLaren back to the top of the pecking order this season, Norris continued: “No. One good upgrade, no. We need three, four, five, but it depends.
“Sometimes you take one little piece at a time, sometimes you try to make something so everything goes together because it’s a new philosophy. We’re like two, three months behind – that’s not one upgrade.
“That’s a lot of bits, so I don’t think we’re going to be quickest any time soon. Hopefully over the next three, four, five months, we can catch up and narrow the gap to be on pace with them [our rivals].
“To catch up takes a huge effort from the team, which they’re doing, and everyone’s very excited and motivated because we know it’s possible. We’re like three months behind and that’s a hard task to overcome, but everyone at McLaren knows we can achieve that, and we’re excited to try and do it.”
As part of that development push, Norris is set to trial a new “experimental” rear wing during Friday practice at the Red Bull Ring, though team mate Oscar Piastri has confirmed that the device will only be tested – and not raced – at this stage.
Norris sits fifth in the Drivers’ Championship after the first seven rounds of the season, 83 points down on leader Antonelli, while McLaren are third in the Teams’ battle, holding 141 points to Ferrari’s 190 and Mercedes’ 262.