McLaren struggled as Norris finished fifth at United States Grand Prix
NXTbets Pro | Published On: October 26, 2026
Norris qualifying struggle
Lando Norris finished fifth at the United States Grand Prix after McLaren spent the weekend chasing pace at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas. Norris said McLaren were “just not quick enough” and called the team the “fourth fastest team” after the race, a blunt assessment that matched the way the weekend unfolded. He qualified eighth after what he described as a “terrible job” in qualifying, and a track-limits violation wiped out his final Q3 lap. Norris said that lap would have put him sixth and added that he thought he could have gone even better than that. He also said the McLaren MCL40 was the hardest car he had ever driven, adding that he had “zero confidence” in it and was “scared in every single corner.” That left McLaren dealing with a package that never looked settled on a circuit that punishes mistakes and exposes weakness in the slow corners. Norris said the car lacked rear-end grip, and he pointed to the same part of the track as the area where the team lost the most ground.
McLaren race strategy
The race itself brought the same problems into sharper focus. McLaren chose a one-stop strategy, and Norris said that left him vulnerable when rivals on fresher tires came after him late. He was running second deep into the race before Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton all got by. That sequence turned a strong position into a fifth-place finish, which fit the weekend’s pattern of McLaren slipping away when the pace battle got tighter. Norris said the team’s upgrades were working as intended, but he also said they were not solving McLaren’s biggest weakness in slow corners. That left the squad with a car that improved in some areas but still struggled where the track asked for better low-speed handling. The result was a weekend where McLaren could not turn its upgrades into the kind of race pace needed to hold position against the front-runners. Norris’s comments made clear how much the car was asking of the driver, and how little confidence he had when the lap time mattered most. For McLaren, the issue was not one isolated mistake. It was a broader problem that showed up in qualifying, in the race and in the way the team had to manage its tire strategy just to stay in the fight.
Piastri standings picture
Oscar Piastri finished seventh, just ahead of George Russell, and that added to a difficult points day for McLaren. The team left Austin tied on points with Red Bull for third place in the constructors’ standings, a result that reflected how close the battle remained even when McLaren could not find the speed it wanted. Piastri said McLaren’s problem was a mix of low-speed handling and unpredictability, which tracks with the same weaknesses Norris identified. Both drivers pointed to the slow corners, and both made clear the car was not giving them the confidence they needed over a full lap. That made McLaren’s weekend less about one bad session and more about a car that never fully came into its own at Circuit of The Americas. The team arrived with upgrades, but the gains did not erase the shortcomings that kept showing up in the tighter sections of the track. Norris still salvaged fifth, but McLaren never looked close to turning that into more. With Piastri seventh and Russell right behind him, the team left Texas with the standings still tight and the same questions about pace, grip and consistency for both drivers.
