Lando Norris knows McLaren must “improve in all areas” if he’s to have any chance of a successful Formula 1 title defence. Last year’s drivers’ champion was nowhere to be seen in the fight for victory at the Australian Grand Prix last Sunday with Ferrari instead beginning the new season as chief rivals to early pace-setters Mercedes.
Norris qualified sixth behind team-mate Oscar Piastri and finished fifth after the Aussie crashed before the Melbourne race even began. More worryingly, he was nearly 52 seconds adrift of winner George Russell and that situation has sparked urgency for the team that has won the last two constructors’ crowns.
Ahead of this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix, Norris said he hopes McLaren will be “a bit closer” thanks to learnings taken from the data they gathered in the season opener. But he added: “At the same time we also know we have to improve in all areas. It’s not just power unit, it’s the car itself.
“It’s decent, we’re in a good starting position, but we still want it to be better than what it is currently. It should be a little bit more simple and therefore we expect to be a bit closer [in Shanghai]. Even if we were to go back to Melbourne now, though, I think we would expect to be closer anyway from what we’ve understood and been able to learn and figure out.”
The Mercedes driver said: “If [Norris] was winning I don’t think he’d be saying the same. We weren’t happy with how stiff the cars were last year and the porpoising. Everyone had a bad back and the drivers were complaining about that and the McLaren drivers said they had no porpoising, even though we watched their car and they were porpoising. Everyone is always looking to themselves and we are all selfish in this regard.”
Piastri heads to Shanghai as the winner from last year’s Chinese GP, but at a disadvantage this time around having yet to experience what it’s like to race this new generation of F1 cars. The Melburnian said he is trying to look on the bright side despite the pain of missing his home race, 12 months after a spin in the 2025 Australian GP left him down in ninth.
He said: “It’s certainly not going to be my favourite moment of my career, but I think I still tried to learn as much as I can from the race. There’s definitely positives to take in amongst last weekend, but I think back to the start of last year, I’m only two points worse off even though it’s a lot more embarrassing.”